- U.S.-based Nigerian archaeologist Abidemi Babalola wins the $300,000 Dan David Prize for historical research.
- His work reveals independent glass production in pre-15th-century West Africa.
- Babalola leads the MOWAA Archaeology Project in Benin City.
US-based Nigerian research archaeologist and expert in anthropological archaeology, Abidemi Babalola, has won the $300,000 Dan David Prize.
EKO HOT BLOG reports that the $300,000 Dan David Prize is recognised as the world’s largest award for history research.
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Babalola is one of nine global recipients of the 2025 Dan David Prize, awarded annually to outstanding early-to-mid-career scholars who have made significant contributions to historical research.
Babalola’s work demonstrates that technology did not necessarily spread from a single origin but could arise independently across different societies, highlighting Africa’s creativity, resilience, and indigenous knowledge systems.
Babalola also received the Shanghai Archaeology Forum Discovery Award (2019), the World Archaeology Congress Blaze O’Connor Award (2022), Archaeological Institute of America Conservation and Heritage Site Award (2025).
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This year’s award winner has made major contributions to archaeology, from investigating Nazi death camps to transforming our understanding of glassmaking in Africa.
Dr. Abidemi Babalola currently leads the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) Archaeology Project in Benin City, Nigeria. He works in partnership with the British Museum’s Department of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
Before this, he was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the British Museum’s Scientific Research Department, focusing on copper alloy artiartefactsm Nigeria’s Lower Niger region.
Babalola earned his PhD in Anthropology from Rice University in Houston, Texas, and holds MA and BA degrees in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
His research explores the archaeology of pyrotechnologies and the history of science and innovation in pre-modern West Africa. He has helped dismantle long-held Eurocentric views that denied Africa’s technological past.
One of his most important findings is evidence of local glass production in West Africa before the 15th century. His work shows that forest communities made and traded glass beads across vast networks he calls the “glass bead roads.”
The Dan David Prize, presented by the Dan David Foundation, recognises scholars whose work contributes meaningfully to understanding the human past.
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