This PhD in Archaeology candidate is investigating how ancient Nigeria expanded its empire

Horses have been humans’ ride-or-die for thousands of years. Literally.

They’ve pulled carts, carried kings, and thundered across battlefields. But when it comes to Nigeria? The horse’s story is missing entire chapters.

That’s the mystery Olumide Ojediran, a PhD in Archaeology (with a specialty in zooarchaeology) candidate, is trying to piece together.

Because here’s the thing: Ojediran knows they played a significant role in shaping Nigeria’s past.

“Horses helped the Oyo Empire expand,” he explains. “It began as a small city-state. Over time, it grew powerful enough to conquer neighboring societies.”

So if horses were so important, why is their history in Nigeria so fragmented? Where did they come from? Who rode them? And what became of them?

Ojediran has previously conducted fieldwork in Spain, France, Azerbaijan, and Central Nigeria.Source: Olumide Ojediran

PhD in Archaeology: Completing Nigeria’s history through…horses and donkeys?

Say “archaeology” and most people picture lost cities, crumbling temples, or dusty artifacts straight out of an Indiana Jones film. For example, Kim Jinoh, a PhD in Archaeology candidate at the University of Cambridge, is researching the Iron Age of Europe.

But there’s a lesser-known, animal-centric side to the field — and it’s called zooarchaeology.

That’s the world where Ojediran’s PhD in Archaeology research lives.

“Zooarchaeology is a big umbrella, and my work falls right under it,” he says. “I study past human-animal relationships, specifically horses and donkeys in Ede-Ile, a colony of the Oyo Empire, and in Idah, located in the Niger-Benue Confluence region in Nigeria.”

The Oyo Empire stretched into the present-day Benin Republic in West Africa.

“Historical records show horses played a huge role in the empire’s expansion,” Ojediran says. “But what’s missing is info on the horses themselves. Like, how did they survive? What was their health like during all this military movement?”

That’s especially puzzling because the Oyo Empire was based in the savannah and forest zones, areas notorious for horse-killing diseases like trypanosomiasis, spread by bloodsucking tsetse flies.

And yet, the horses endured — and helped build an empire.

Ojediran completed a joint Master of Science in Quaternary Geology, Prehistory, and Bioarchaeology at the Natural History Museum of Paris and Universität Rovira i Virgili, Spain. Source: Olumide Ojediran

Zooarchaeology matters in Nigeria

In much of the world, zooarchaeology is an established subfield. But in Nigeria and across West Africa, it remains rare — and in many cases, nonexistent.

“There’s no formal field of zooarchaeology in Nigeria, just basic archaeology,” says Ojediran. “Part of the reason is the soil. It’s so acidic that it destroys bones and other organic materials.”

That makes traditional bone analysis — the bread and butter of zooarchaeology — incredibly difficult in the region. As a result, fewer researchers specialise in the field, and even fewer excavations focus on the study of animal remains.

But filling that gap matters. Because when you understand the animals, you understand the people.

“My research helps explore the history of animal domestication and how humans related to animals over time,” Ojediran says. “We’ve studied colonial and post-colonial Nigeria to death. But pre-colonial history? That’s where we’re still in the dark. I want to bring that into the light.”

Ojediran is under the guidance of Dr. William Taylor for his PhD in Archaeology. Source: Olumide Ojediran

How a hilltop turned into a lifelong mission

Archaeology isn’t exactly a trendy career path. 

Sure, there have been famous finds, like the Nok terracottas and Igbo-Ukwu bronzes, but the field itself doesn’t get much love locally.

Ojediran’s own journey began with a hill in Ondo State, where he grew up.

“The history of my hometown, Ofiki in Oyo state, is well known,” he explains. “People moved a lot due to war, and at one point, they settled on a hilltop. After peace returned, they moved back down.”

That story intrigued him so much that he climbed the hill to see it for himself.

“You could still see what those people left behind — ruins, objects, signs of life from hundreds of years ago,” he says

That lit the spark. He started wondering: How can I actually study this stuff?

Ojediran is currently a 3D Ethics Intern at the Mesa Verde National Park. Source: Olumide Ojediran

It turns out that only four Nigerian universities offer archaeology. One of them is the University of Ibadan (UI), Nigeria’s second-highest-ranked university, and that’s where Ojediran went for his BA in Historical Archaeology.

Then, he won an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship and pursued a Master’s in Quaternary, Prehistory, and Bioarchaeology (basically a cousin of zooarchaeology) at the Natural History Museum of Paris and Universität Rovira i Virgili, Spain.

Fresh off that MSc, he flew halfway across the world to start his PhD in Archaeology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, focusing on Nigeria’s missing horse history. He has been there for the past three years, delving into both archives and excavation data.

“After I graduate, I’d love to stay in academia as a researcher,” he says. “And if the opportunity comes up to become a professor of zooarchaeology of West Africa — well, there isn’t one yet. So why not be the first?”