Abidemi Babatunde Babalola
Abidemi Babatunde Babalola | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | University of Ibadan University of Rice |
| Occupation | Archaeologist |
| Awards | Dan David Prize |
Abidemi Babatunde Babalola is a Nigerian lead archaeologist on the Museum of West African Art Archaeology Project, and research fellow at the British Museum.[1] A recipient of the 2025 Dan David Prize, 2025 Conservation and Heritage Management Award, Shanghai Archaeology Forum’s Field Discovery Award.[2]
Education
Babalola holds both bachelor's degree and Master's degree in Archaeology and Anthropology from University of Ibadan. He holds another master’s degree, and doctorate degree in Anthropological Archaeology from Rice University.[3]
Career
Babalola serves as the director of the Archaeology of Glass project in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He served as a principal investigator on Digitization of glass/glass bead-making: use, meaning, and symbolism in Ile-Ife, and Bida, a British Museum Endangered Material Knowledge Grant project.[4]
Works
Babalola's research works showcase the scientific and technological achievements of precolonial West Africa.
Glass and glass bead making in Ile-Ife
Babalola is directly challenging the Eurocentric narratives and reshaping the global understanding of Africa’s role in technological history through his work on uncovering the complexity of indigenous glass production in Ifẹ. He reveals that the societies from West Africa developed advanced technologies centuries before coming in contact with the Europeans.[5]
Babalola and his team uncovered more than 12,000 glass beads and production remnants dated 11th to 15th centuries. Made with a rare high lime, high alumina (HLHA) formula unique to the region, these artifacts reveal a distinct Yoruba scientific and artistic tradition rooted in local materials like feldspar and snail shells.[6]
Awards
- Shanghai Archaeology Forum Discovery Award (2019)
- World Archaeological Congress (WAC) Blaze O’Connor Award (2022)
- Conservation and Heritage Site Award from the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) (2025)
- Dan David Prize (2025)
Fellowships/Memberships
- Smuts Fellowship at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Cambridge
- McMillan Stewart Fellowship at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research
- Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Anthropology department at Harvard University
- Postdoctoral fellowship at University College London in Doha, Qatar
- Marie Curie Sklodowska Fellowship at the Cyprus Institute in Cyprus.
Publications
- Semi-finished glass from Ile-Ife, Nigeria: implications for the archaeology of glass in sub-Saharan Africa
- Digitization of glass bead-making, use and meaning in Ile-Ife, Southwestern Nigeria
References
- ^ Chidumebi, Derrick (20 June 2025). "Abidemi Babatunde Babalola Wins $300,000 Dan David Prize". Art Network Africa. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
- ^ "Abidemi Babatunde Babalola". Dan David Prize. 2025-06-10. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
- ^ "Babalola bags Archaeological Institute of America (AIA)". The Sun Nigeria. 13 February 2025. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
- ^ Babalola, Abidemi Babatunde; Ogunfolakan, Adisa; Lababidi, Lesley; Adesiyan, Ademola (29 October 2020). "Rituals, Religious practices, and glass/glass bead making in Ile-Ife and Bida, Nigeria". Endangered Material Knowledge Programme. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
- ^ Abiodun, Alao (10 June 2025). "Nigerian archaeologist Babalola wins $300,000 Dan David Prize". The Nation Newspaper. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
- ^ Babalola, Abidemi Babatunde (6 December 2023). "How we found the earliest glass production south of the Sahara, and what it means". The Conversation. Retrieved 29 July 2025.