Ife Art and the Early City-States
Ile-Ife's classic period (about 1100-1400 CE), the terracotta and copper-alloy heads, potsherd pavements, glass bead making at Ife, Frobenius and the denial of African authorship, the Wunmonije finds and Willett's excavations, and the early city-states that shared Ife's royal ideology.
Ife's classic period
Ile-Ife's artists produced some of the most naturalistic sculpture in the medieval world. Excavations also revealed a glass industry: Ife made its own glass beads, a rare technology in the region, and beads were central to royal regalia (the beaded crown, adé). Trade linked Ife to the north through the Niger, bringing copper and later brass that Ife did not mine locally.
The early city-states (Ife, Owo, Ijebu, Ilesa, Ketu and others) shared an ideology of sacred kingship: an oba descended from Oduduwa, wearing a beaded crown with a veil, surrounded by chiefs who checked his power. Owo's art shows strong links to both Ife and Benin.
Frank Willett, Ife in the History of West African Sculpture (1967); Suzanne Preston Blier, Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power, and Identity, c. 1300 (2015); Ekpo Eyo and Frank Willett, Treasures of Ancient Nigeria (1980); Abidemi Babatunde Babalola's work on Ife glass production (2010s).