The Archaeology of Slavery in Nigeria: Material Culture, Landscape, and Memory at Former Slave Raiding and Trading Sites

The archaeology of slavery is a globally dynamic field that has transformed the scholarly and public understanding of the human costs and landscape impacts of slave raiding and trading in the Atlantic world and within Africa, yet the material dimensions of Nigeria's own slavery history, encompassing both domestic slavery and the supply of enslaved people to trans-Saharan and Atlantic routes, have received almost no systematic archaeological investigation. This dissertation develops the archaeology of slavery in Nigeria through a theoretically grounded multi-site study encompassing former slave raiding localities in the Middle Belt, slave trade nodal points in the Niger Delta, and holding and transit sites on both Atlantic and trans-Saharan routes. Theoretical foundations draw on landscape archaeology, memory studies, and the emerging field of the archaeology of the unfree, developing an original analytical framework for the Nigerian context that integrates material evidence with oral historical memory, spatial analysis, and comparative Atlantic World archaeology. Field programmes at twelve study sites identified a consistent material signature of raiding-related landscape transformation including abandoned defensive settlements, refugia, and evidence for rapid site desertion. At transit sites in the Niger Delta, integrated analysis of architecture, artefact assemblages, and spatial organization reveals spatial segregation patterns consistent with enforced confinement that find parallels in documented Atlantic World slave depot sites. The study's memory component documents living community narratives about slavery landscapes that both corroborate and enrich the material evidence, demonstrating the value of integrating descendant community perspectives in slavery archaeology. Keywords: archaeology of slavery, Nigeria, landscape archaeology, memory, Atlantic World.