Analyzing Ancient Political Power and Urbanization Patterns

Introduction

How might visibility be used to map an ancient civilization's political landscape?

The Yoruba civilization, one of the oldest known, dates back to 350 BC (Wikipedia). The ancient city of Ife, located in present-day Nigeria, is commonly regarded as the origin of Yoruba civilization, with archaeological evidence of urbanization in AD 500 (Metropolitan Museum of Art 2000). According to Yoruba mythology, the deity Oduduwa established the political structure of Ife by planting a palm nut that grew into a great tree with 16 branches, representing the clans of the early Ife city-state (Wikipedia). These 16 clans were scattered around the perimeter of Ife, and though the clans paid homage to the central palace, each one had its own chief.

But the clans of Ife were irregular both in terms of geography and political influence, factors that must be considered in analyzing the political power in Ife. Which of the 16 clans had the most influence? Certainly, having a powerful clan leader, or chief, made a difference. Did the location of a chief's residence play a role in determining clan power?

With extensive archaeological work, locations of the chiefs' residences have been mapped. One theory of political power, as proposed by French philosopher Michel Foucault (1984), is that visibility and line of sight determine the power structure of one group over another.

So is it possible to use visibility analysis to assess the relative power wielded by the different chiefs? Thanks to archaeology and modern mapping, the answer is yes.

Location

Ife, Nigeria

Time to complete the lab

Two hours

Prerequisites

Familiarity with ArcMap software

Ability to export individual features into new feature classes

Ability to add a field to a dataset and calculate values to the field

Data used in this lab

Digital elevation model (DEM) and vector data derived from archaeological excavations of Ife

Geographic coordinate system: WGS 1984

Datum: WGS 1984

Projected coordinate system: UTM, Zone 31N