Mejiro Rockshelter: Revisiting the Later Stone Age Sequence in

Oyo-Ile, Nigeria
Akinwumi Ogundiran
Department of Africana Studies,

University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC 28223 (USA)

[email protected]
Okopi Ade

Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies,
University of Jos, Jos (Nigeria)
[email protected]

Abstract
The first scientific excavation in Oyo-Ile (1956-57) took place in Mejiro Rockshelter,
where Frank Willett uncovered the Later Stone Age and Yoruba (Oyo) occupation
levels. In this article, we seek to resolve two issues raised by Frank Willett, which were
not satisfactorily answered in his reports. First, Willett proposed that there was a
ceramic LSA level in the archaeological sequence. Second, hesuggested that there was
an encounter between the LSA and the later Yoruba populations. Our stratigraphic
excavations, carried out in the dripline of the rockshelter in 2018, have now clarified
the relationships between these two occupation phases. In this study, we discuss why
we excavated the Mejiro rockshelter. We then describe the stratigraphic sequence of
the two units that we excavated in 2018 and the typological attributes of the
microlithic assemblage. The findings enable us to resolve the puzzle raised in Frank
Willett’s work. First, there was no ceramic LSA in the archaeological sequence,and
the microlithic technology in Oyo-Ile could only have supporteda hunting-gathering
subsistence economy. Second, we conclude that there was no encounter between the
LSA and Oyo populations. The two occupations were separated by a hiatus of two or
more millennia. The results provide a new framework for the study of the LSA
sequence in Oyo-Ile.