The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Thursday unveiled the ancient Igbo Olokun heritage site in Ile-ife, Osun State after an archaeologist, Dr Babatunde Babalola, carried out excavation work at the site digging out some ancient artifacts.
Babalola, who is a researcher with British Museum, said the Olokun bronze head believed to represent the King was excavated at the site in 1910 by locals for a German anthropologist, Leo Frobenius.
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The Director-General, National Commission for Museum and Monuments (NCMM), Professor Abba Isa Tijani, said the former DG of NCMM, Dr Omotosho Eluyemi, was the first Yoruba indigenous archaeologist to carry out excavation work at Igbo Olokun archaeological site.
He said in 2010 and 2012, further excavations where over 12,000 glass beads as well as hundreds of glass-encrusted crucible fragments, other glass production debris and pottery were recovered by Babalola .
Oba Ogunwusi said the artifacts were of great significance to the Yorubas as they further established the connection between the Yorubas and science and technology since over four thousand years ago.
The monarch said the discovery worth celebration expressed joy over the discovery.
