THE ORIGIN OF ILE-IFE

Ile-Ife also known as Ife or Ife-Lodun is an ancient urban center, a Yoruba city in Osun state in southwestern Nigeria, about 135 northeast of Lagos. First occupied at least as early as the 1st millennium CE, it was most populous and important to the Ife culture during the 14th and 15th centuries CE, and it is considered the traditional birthplace of the Yoruba civilization, of the latter part of the African Iron Age. Today it is a thriving metropolis, with a population of about 350,000 people.

Basic facts of Ile-Ife
(1) Ile-Ife is a Medieval period site in Nigeria, occupied between the 11th and 15th centuries CE.
(2) It is considered the ancestral home of the Yoruba people.
(3) Residents made naturalistic Benin bronzes, terracotta and copper allow sculptures.
(4) Evidence at the site shows local manufacture of glass beads, adobe brick houses, and potsherd pavements.