Waja

Adekola, K. and Aleru, J. O.
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of Ibadan,
Ibadan, Nigeria

Introduction
The archaeology of Esie is yet to be properly delimited both in scope and in content. The
town of Esie (Fig. 1) is located in north central Yorubaland, the homeland of the Igbomina-
Yoruba speaking peoples. It is one of the major communities making up the Irepodun Local
Government Area of Kwara State. Esie has the largest collections of soapstone figurines in
West Africa. The figurines (over a thousand) depict the finest collection of work of art of a
culture yet to be fully understood in spite of detailed investigations from the art history
perspectives. Certain questions are still archaeologically pertinent: Who were the makers of
the figurines? What are the other socio-cultural manifestations of the culture that produced
the figurines? And; where are the possible sources of raw materials for the production of the
figurines? These are some of the propelling questions that led to the ongoing archaeological
research in Esie,