An Archaeological Investigation of Old Gawu Settlement Sites, Abaji Area Council, Abuja, Nigeria

An Archaeological Investigation of Old Gawu Settlement Sites, Abaji Area Council, Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

This research entitled An Archaeological Investigation of Old Gawu Settlement Sites, Abaji Area Council Abuja, Nigeria was carried out on settlement sites located on the hilltop that makes up the Gawu ridge and also at the foot of the hill. The research is a conscious attempt to reconstruct the early history of the Gawu area using archaeological and historical approaches. Such site in the suburb of the FCT of Nigeria are constantly been destroyed by developers seeking to develop these suburb into befitting satellite towns in the bid to depopulate and decongest the metropolis. This act is carried out constantly without any attempt to document the archaeology of such areas. Historical and archaeological methods were employed in carrying out this study, these include; the use of written documents and archival sources, the use of oral data collection, archaeological survey, collection of ethnographic data and the classification and analysis of finds and features from the sites. Hence the historical archaeology approach was adopted as a suitable framework to better explain the sites. The finds and features from the Gawu sites include; pottery wares and potsherds, iron slag and implement, spindle whorls, dye pits, cowrie shells, upper and lower grinding stones, caves and rock shelter, ritual places, burial places, rock hollows, market square, ceremonial/ social ground, house/ granary foundations and relics of buildings. A casual look at the surface cultural materials have suggested the fact that the people did not migrate from Borno as claimed by their oral tradition.it was also established that the sites were contemporaneous And would have existed during the era of early state formation and urbanization.