Editing History of Nigeria (section)

==Prehistory==
{{Main|History of Nigeria before 1500#Prehistory}}
[[File:Rock Art Site, Birin Kudu (6).jpg|thumb|Rock art found in [[Birnin Kudu]], [[Jigawa State]]]]
[[Acheulean]] tool-using [[archaic humans]] may have dwelled throughout West Africa since at least between 780,000 BP and 126,000 BP ([[Middle Pleistocene]]).<ref name="Scerri">{{cite book |last1=Scerri |first1=Eleanor |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History |date=October 26, 2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter-url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1442d1c1-7f76-454d-97db-8fd52a4c6c1e/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=The%2BStone%2BAge%2BArchaeology%2Bof%2BWest%2BAfrica.pdf |chapter=The Stone Age Archaeology of West Africa |pages=1, 31 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.137 |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4 |s2cid=133758803 |access-date=October 5, 2023 |archive-date=March 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320122801/https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1442d1c1-7f76-454d-97db-8fd52a4c6c1e/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=The%2BStone%2BAge%2BArchaeology%2Bof%2BWest%2BAfrica.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

By at least 61,000 BP, Middle Stone Age West Africans may have begun to migrate south of the West Sudanian savanna, and, by at least 25,000 BP, may have begun to dwell near the coast of West Africa.<ref name="Niang">{{cite journal |last1=Niang |first1=Khady |display-authors=etal |year=2020 |title=The Middle Stone Age occupations of Tiémassas, coastal West Africa, between 62 and 25 thousand years ago |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352409X20304491 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |volume=34 |page=102658 |bibcode=2020JArSR..34j2658N |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102658 |issn=2352-409X |oclc=8709222767 |s2cid=228826414 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2023-10-05 |archive-date=2020-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201120142305/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352409X20304491 |url-status=live }}</ref>

An excessively dry Ogolian period occurred, spanning from 20,000 BP to 12,000 BP.<ref name="MacDonald">{{cite journal |last1=MacDonald |first1=K.C. |date=April 2011 |title=Betwixt Tichitt and the IND: the pottery of the Faita Facies, Tichitt Tradition |url=https://dokumen.tips/documents/betwixt-tichitt-and-the-ind-the-pottery-of-the-faita-facies-tichitt-tradition.html |journal=Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |volume=46 |pages=49, 51, 54, 56–57, 59–60 |doi=10.1080/0067270X.2011.553485 |issn=0067-270X |oclc=4839360348 |s2cid=161938622 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2023-10-05 |archive-date=2021-05-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513131447/https://dokumen.tips/documents/betwixt-tichitt-and-the-ind-the-pottery-of-the-faita-facies-tichitt-tradition.html |url-status=live }}</ref> By 15,000 BP, the number of settlements made by Middle Stone Age West Africans decreased as there was an increase in humid conditions, expansion of the [[Guinean Forests of West Africa|West African forest]], and increase in the number of settlements made by Late Stone Age West African hunter-gatherers.<ref name="Scerri II">{{cite journal |last1=Scerri |first1=Eleanor M. L. |year=2021 |title=Continuity of the Middle Stone Age into the Holocene |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=70 |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-79418-4 |oclc=8878081728 |pmc=7801626 |pmid=33431997 |s2cid=231583475}}</ref> [[Iwo Eleru people]] persisted at [[Iwo Eleru]], in [[Nigeria]], as late as 13,000 BP.<ref name="Bergström">{{cite journal |last1=Bergström |first1=Anders |display-authors=etal |year=2021 |title=Origins of modern human ancestry |url=https://iranvarjavand.ir/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/paperhub.ir10.1038@s41586-021-03244-5.pdf |journal=Nature |volume=590 |issue=7845 |page=232 |bibcode=2021Natur.590..229B |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-03244-5 |issn=0028-0836 |oclc=8911705938 |pmid=33568824 |s2cid=231883210 |access-date=2023-10-05 |archive-date=2022-03-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327072835/https://iranvarjavand.ir/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/paperhub.ir10.1038@s41586-021-03244-5.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Macrolith-using late Middle Stone Age peoples, who dwelled in Central Africa, to western Central Africa, to West Africa, were displaced by microlith-using Late Stone Age Africans as they migrated from [[Central Africa]] into [[West Africa]].<ref name="Schlebusch">{{cite journal |last1=Schlebusch |first1=Carina M. |last2=Jakobsson |first2=Mattias |year=2018 |title=Tales of Human Migration, Admixture, and Selection in Africa |journal=Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics |volume=19 |page=407 |doi=10.1146/annurev-genom-083117-021759 |issn=1527-8204 |oclc=7824108813 |pmid=29727585 |s2cid=19155657|doi-access=free }}</ref> After having persisted as late as 1000 BP,<ref name="MacDonald X">{{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Kevin C. |title=Archaeology and Language II: Archaeological Data and Linguistic Hypotheses |chapter=Archaeology, language and the peopling of West Africa: a consideration of the evidence |date=Sep 2, 2003 |publisher=Routledge |pages=39–40, 43–44, 48–49 |isbn=9780203202913 |doi=10.4324/9780203202913-11 |oclc=815644445 |s2cid=163304839 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48iKiprsRMwC&q=%22West+African+hunter-gatherers%22&pg=PA37}}</ref> or some period of time after 1500 AD,<ref name="Van Beek">{{cite book |last1=Van Beek |first1=Walter E.A. |last2=Banga |first2=Pieteke M. |title=Bush Base, Forest Farm: Culture, Environment, and Development |chapter=The Dogon and their trees |date=Mar 11, 2002 |publisher=Routledge |page=66 |isbn=9781134919567 |doi=10.4324/9780203036129-10 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |oclc=252799202 |s2cid=126989016 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppuKAgAAQBAJ&q=%22Tellem%22+%22Dogon%22&pg=PA57}}</ref> remaining West African hunter-gatherers were ultimately acculturated and admixed into the larger groups of West African [[agriculturalists]].<ref name="MacDonald X" />

The [[Dufuna canoe]], a dugout canoe found in [[Yobe State]] in northeastern Nigeria has been dated to around 6300 BC,<ref name="Breunig Dufuna">{{cite journal |last1=Breunig |first1=Peter |last2=Neumann |first2=Katharina |last3=Van Neer |first3=Wim |title=New research on the Holocene settlement and environment of the Chad Basin in Nigeria |url=https://www.academia.edu/6747300 |journal=African Archaeological Review |date=1996 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=116–117 |doi=10.1007/BF01956304 |jstor=25130590 |s2cid=162196033 |access-date=2023-10-06 |archive-date=2023-10-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231010225207/https://www.academia.edu/6747300 |url-status=live }}</ref> making it the oldest known boat in Africa, and the second oldest worldwide.<ref name="Breunig Dufuna" /><ref name="trillo">{{cite book |author=Richard Trillo |title=The Rough Guide to West Africa |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TL1q6BiISt8C&pg=PT2640 |date=16 June 2008 |publisher=Rough Guides |isbn=978-1-4053-8070-6 |pages=Unnumbered |chapter=Nigeria Part 3:14.5 the north and northeast Maiduguri}}</ref>