Edo|cation

Yeah, I do romance in the building I got four with me They don't know, they don't really know And I hope that they really know They don't know, they don't really know And I hope that they really know Every time I close my eyes Your beauty reaches for me deep inside From the moss to the trees inside Your beauty is a paradise The world's eyes in many ways are on the culture of West Africa at the moment Because the culture of this part of the world is so thriving and rich and colourful The music, the art, the creativity In many ways, it's booming in Nigeria these days In 2022, the Benin bronzes are returned from Germany to Nigeria Within this framework, the German Archaeological Institute launched the Edo-Cation Project with funding of the Federal Foreign Office The focus is on research and joint learning The DAI supports Nigerian archaeologists on site with further training and modern equipment such as drones Together, Nigerian and German researchers investigate the archaeology of the Kingdom of Benin Edo-Cation is a project running from 2022 until the end of 2024 at the DAI This was different from many of the other German Archaeological Institute's projects in that it wasn't just a research project We're working together to create a permanent centre for archaeology in the region So training people and leaving behind the skills which you bring to the project is absolutely fundamental It's not an optional extra It lies at the centre of what we're trying to do We have spent the last two years thinking very critically about the gaps that exist in terms of capacity, in terms of facilities in terms of opportunities for young practitioners and artists in Nigeria And that's really at the heart of what our collaboration has been with the German Archaeological Institute One of the first activities of education when we were here for the first time was the documentation of Ogamen House or the Ogamen Residency The Ogamen Residency is one of the oldest buildings in Benin City that is still standing and in its more or less original condition Most of the time the method that we use in project education is structure for motion photogrammetry In that method you have to take a lot of pictures from an object, from a landscape or from a building like the Ogamen House we are standing in From these pictures and with the help of special software you can create a 3D model The 3D model is very useful for creating plans of the architecture, of documenting the preservation of the building and to show Ogamen House to the public I couldn't understand why Benin Archaeology escaped the attention of archaeologists all over the world since the 60s But now we have the attention of BIA and we have the attention of MOA These two organizations collaborating to work on the moat It quickly became clear that addressing the questions surrounding the Benin moats was really a very high priority You can describe them as earth walls or earthworks You have a wall rampart and then a ditch next to it Some said that they were for defense and other people said no, they were not for defense but for administrative purposes The moats of Benin are among the biggest archaeological monuments worldwide so they are very significant on a global scale There hasn't really been a lot of more recent mapping of these ancient monuments The moats, we are documenting them we are flying with drones above them and we are measuring them with GPS We need to make sure that with time all over Nigeria people are well equipped to use the drone, being able to map places My geological background gave me a theoretical insight into all these things but not practical insight until I got exposed and I got exposed to those equipments that was when I started practicing Our aim is to map all the moats here in Benin So to start the drone we look for places where we don't disturb people for example high buildings High buildings also have the advantage that we have a better connection to the drone One of the main outcomes is a map of the inner city moat that shows the condition of the moat but that also shows the current extent of the moats This way we can also compare their current preservation to the preservation in the 60s and we can figure out how endangered they are So we are trying to see the relationship that people who live around the moat the relationship they have in interacting with the moat over the years and one of the things that we notice is that the moat is not in its best condition because we can see human activities and people are really not paying attention to what their heritage looks like and the story that is behind these moats Anytime we are talking about the moats we should also talk about the people that built the moats We are able to engage with the people and it enables us to give a human face to our mapping One of the important places we went to is called Unhun Idumu We found out that the community is a very, very old community and it is home to a very important shrine in Benin, the Olokun Shrine There are different Olokun in Endo State but this is the number one because the Oba live in this community at the ancient time We had a lengthy discussion asking several questions about the oldest building in that community the oldest family We also talked about the boundaries the extent of the boundary of the community We are taking to the moats Near the moats we have the extracted chalk From what we are told this has been a long time tradition in the community The community is known for chalk production So the community mapping kind of complements the mapping done using LiDAR and drones You get a better context and a better understanding of the moats The Olokun Shrine At the end of Project Education next year, 2024 our Nigerian colleagues will stay They will continue their work here in Benin City They will continue their research here in Benin City This project for me it feels like I'm helping to promote the culture and heritage of my people Getting to work with AI was an opportunity to get developing digital skills that is applicable to archaeological studies or archaeological projects I've been able to learn a lot Sometimes you just feel like man, I never knew this lot but now working with these guys it's like a whole new world So this has really been the coming together of resources and knowledge from other parts of the world within Nigeria to really make hopefully something that's really special and profound Thank you