Lejja Iron Smelting
Lejja is a community comprising 33 villages in Enugu State of South-Eastern Nigeria. It is populated by the Igbo people and located about 14 Kilometers from Nsukka. It is the location of a prehistoric archaeological site which contains iron smelting furnaces and slag dated to 2000 BC. The village square contains over 800 blocks of slag with an average weight of between 34 and 57 kg. Geophysical investigations have Located buried iron slag in several other locations in the community.
Iron and its influence on the prehistoric site of Lejja
Intensive smelting of iron took place at the site of Lejja, insouth east Nigeria during prehistoric periods. This statementis substantiated by the extensive iron smelting debris leftbehind in Lejja. The debris could point not only to an extensiveiron smelting period in the history of the site, but couldeven represent the remains of a once thriving industry. Ironsmelting often involved the community as a whole, and itseffects were usually far reaching; from changing the statusand living standards of the smelters to the actual developmentof some African cultures (Holl 2000, p.5). The socio–culturaleffects on the indigenous peoples must have been far reachingand smelting must have occupied a central position in theireveryday existence.
Iron Technology and Political Power: Examples From The Iron Smelting Belt of Nsukka Area,Enugu State, South-Eastern Nigeris
Iron smelting and its technology in Nigeria, particularly in South-Eastern Nigeria, had long gone into oblivion. Most people seem not to recollect coherent information about it as people aver that the furnace walls and iron slag dotted across the zone grew out from the ground. What a crass show of ignorance! But pointers to the practice exist in so many areas in form of iron slag, broken pieces of tuyere and furnace walls, etc. One area in South-Eastern Nigeria that is replete with these clues even to an intimidating level is Nsukka area in Enugu State. The area, possibly due to its proximity to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka has been well researched on, archaeologically speaking, especially in the area of iron technology. However, one fascinating feature of this technology lies not only on the magnitude of these pointers but how its tangible aspects grade into the intangible cultural practices of the respective communities where they occur. Apart from the often touted military superiority of those who possessed iron over those who did not, our ethnographic research in Nsukka area shows that iron could be a symbol of power in another way.
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