Iho-Oloko rock shelter, Ikere-Ekiti, southwestern Nigeria: insights into its archaeology and place in the culture history of the Yoruba – Edo region

Recently, archaeological excavations were conducted at Iho-Oloko, a rock shelter – cave in Ikere-Ekiti, southwestern Nigeria. Our aim was to obtain data that would shed more light on the occupation of the rain forest belt of southern Nigeria during the Late Stone Age (LSA). Three test pits were excavated at this rock shelter, which has four big compartments or chambers and a long corridor. The first test pit was sunk within compartment 2, the second at the southeastern end of the long corridor, and the third at the entrance of the cave. Materials retrieved from the excavations ranged from ceramics and lithic materials (microliths and hammerstone) to metal objects. A single radiocarbon date of 620±60 B.P. (Cal. A.D. 1310) was obtained from trench 2. It is possible that this site had been occupied from the LSA period, although the single date would put its occupation to a period from the Classical Period of the cultural historical phase of the Yoruba – Edo region to sometime in the nineteenth century during the period of the Yoruba internecine wars.