HISTORY OF IGBO-UKWU ARCHAEOLOGY.

                                                          While digging a well in his compound in Igbo-Ukwu in 1939,a villager named Isiah Anozie struck some objects.He them out,piled them against the wall of his hut and not realizing their importance,he invited his friends and neighbours to take any pieces they wanted.Months later,J.O Field,the colonial British district officer of the area,learned of the bronzes.He purchased most of them to keep them together and reported the finds in an anthropology journal publication.In the dry season of 1959-60,the site was excavated at the request of the Nigerian Federal Department of Antiquities.The excavation was led by Thurstan Shaw,the first trained archaeologist to work in British West African.He was assisted by Mallam Liman Ciroma.In 1964,Shaw and his team again excavated in Igbo-Ukwu this time for the Institute of African sturdies,University of Ibadan,where he had an appointment as Research Professor.The team dug in an area east of the previous finds,in the compound of Jonah Anozie.They named the site Igbo-Jonah which is the third site.In 1970,he published a two volume monograph on his findings,and later books that added to his scholarship.He established that the site was for the burials of Nri Elite,who was surrounded by grave goods of high quality.The bronze pieces were made by the sophisticated lost wax technique.Shaw demonstrated  by these finds that indigenious tribes had become highly sophisticated craftmen long before they had come into contact with Arabs or Europeans.More findings below.