The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) has presented the 2025 Conservation and Heritage Management Award to Dr. Abidemi Babatunde Babalola for his incredible work on ancient glass-making in Ile-Ife and the conservation of Igbo Olokun, the site where the technology took place almost 1,000 years ago.
Dr Babalola is a lead archaeologist on the MOWAA Archaeology Project at the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, the British Museum, London. Dr. Babalola earned both his B.A. and M.A. at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He received another master’s degree as well as his Ph.D in Anthropological Archaeology from Rice University, Houston, Texas, United States.
Between 2016 and 2024, he held numerous prestigious fellowships, including the Smuts Fellow at the Centre of African Studies, and McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, the McMillan Stewart Fellow at the Hutchins Centre of African and African-American Research, Harvard University, United States, a postdoctoral fellow at the University College London, Doha, Qatar, and the Marie-Curie Sklodowska Fellow at the Cyprus Institute, Cyprus.
Dr. Babalola is a successful archaeologist and anthropologist and has been serving as the director of the Archaeology of Glass Project at Ile-Ife in southwest Nigeria since 2010.
This project investigates the technologies and production of glass in Yorubaland, focusing on the remarkable site of Igbo Ólokun in Ile-Ife, dated between the 11th and 15th centuries AD.
The significance of the Igbo Olokun site is noted by scholars as a unique site in sub-Saharan Africa, where indigenous glass-making technology is documented, thanks to the pioneering work of Dr. Babalola. Dr. Babalola and his team’s archaeological and conservation work has demonstrated the complexity of the site.
This independently developed glass technology was linked to the social, political, economic and religious life of the people. Igbo Olokun is the first and the only known site of indigenous glass production in sub-Saharan Africa. What particularly impressed AIA’s Cultural Heritage Committee was Dr. Babalola’s work at the Igbo Olokun site beyond the scientific study of glass technologies and conservation of a massive assemblage of artifacts and technological installations: the cultural heritage management of the archaeological site, public archaeology and the passionate engagement of local stakeholders in the preservation of the site.
Thanks to Dr. Babalola’s efforts since 2017, Igbo Olokun has been transformed into a site of community engagement and exemplary heritage management. This has included mobilizing the local stakeholders to conserve the excavated 11th-century glass-making furnace pits, build a roof cover to protect the excavated trenches, plant native vegetation around the site, install informative panels and display boxes for the artifacts, and facilitated a site manager to secure the site. Dr. Babalola’s work at lgbo Olokun offers archaeologists an exemplary model for effective conservation and management of archaeological sites through a genuine engagement with stakeholders. It is also an exceptional model for how heritage sites in Nigeria can be transformed to permeate through the public’s consciousness and become a significant tourist destination.