FIELD REPORT

 INTRODUCTION 

The most important lesson in life is the message from the past. The past's illuminating force is a powerful guide to the future; also, the present is but a reflection of the past, and what should be expected in the future can only be seen by looking back in time (Wilson, 1975).

Niger Republic borders Katsina State to the north, Kano State to the east, Kaduna State to the south, and Sokoto State to the west.

Radda is a village in Katsina State, located in the western part of Charanchi Local Government Area, a few kilometers north of the local government and at least 55 kilometers from the state capital. The abandoned settlement has archaeological potentials, which are currently being studied during the 2018 archaeological field school, organized by the management of the archaeological department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Radda is one of the oldest cities in Katsina, with dyeing, pottery making, and blacksmithing among other occupations attracting people to the area for commercial activities. (See Map 1 of Nigeria, which depicts the state of Katsina.)  

Objectives and Goals

Field School in Archaeology is more than just an annual program run by the Department of Archaeology; it is a field study with a specific goal and set of aims, such as: 

• Attempting to reconstruct Nasarawa's past.

• To teach students the fundamentals of field archaeology, including archaeological reconnaissance, oral history collection, survey, excavation, and ethnography.

• To familiarize pupils with the working conditions of an archaeologist.

• To provide students with the opportunity to have direct contact with a real archaeological site and to retrieve material remains from the site. 

To gather oral tradition about the place and to identify the ancient conduct of the people reflected by their physical remains.

• To verify the oral tradition by analyzing artifacts or cultural materials obtained from the site.

Reasons of choosing the site.

The site of Nasarawa was chosen because of its extensive historical and cultural resources. Relics of dyeing activities may be seen on the site, including dyeing pits, spindle whorls, rock shelters, caves, and defensive walls, to name a few. 

The study's limitations

Certain obstacles, such as a lack of funds, the weather, and a lack of equipment, hampered the research conducted in Nasarawa. As a result, it was completed satisfactorily. 

Methods Adopted

When we talk about the approaches used, we're talking to the actions followed during the research and training. The following are the methods:  

Oral history

This might be viewed as a testimonial passed down verbally from generation to generation. They are a collection of a human group's social, economic, political, religious, and demographic experiences that have been maintained and passed down through the generations by word of mouth. Oral history has shown to be a valuable source and re-source for historians researching Africa's past. It also refers to information that is retained in people's memory and subsequently passed down from generation to generation. Oral traditions are stories passed down from generation to generation (Vensina 1971).

Reconnaissance and Survey

Reconnaissance simply refers to an archaeologist going out into the field in order to discover archaeological sites and recover surface artifacts. On the other hand, surveying refers to the taking of measurements of discoveries and features identified during reconnaissance.

"Because of the importance of location in any archaeological inquiry," Andah Etal (1994) writes, "archaeologists must prospect for a site connected with evidence of early human activities using either scientific or non-scientific approaches." The form of reconnaissance used in this study was ground reconnaissance via foot traversal. Graham and Heifer (1967) define reconnaissance as the logical start to any archaeological investigation of a given region. It attempts to locate as many of the area site as possible to access their nature and the collection of associated artifacts and to produce an adequate record for future construction.

   It is paramount to note that there are numerous ways of carrying out reconnaissance, however, for this study, we adopted ground reconnaissance which involved walking on feet to observe, study record and collect surface finds. 

Excavation

   Excavation is the systematic digging of an archaeological site in order to retrieve cultural material beneath the earth surface for the purpose of historical reconstruction. It can also be seen as one of the methods archaeologists adopted in the field to recover data or remains of past inhabitant which are buried beneath the earth surface so as to reconstruct their past life ways.

“The objectives of any archaeologists embarking on an excavation is to ensure that maximum amount of information is derived from the objects excavated, and to achieve this, archaeologists sought to observe minimum standards for onsite finds from the preparatory stage”. “Planning is fundamental to conservation procedures. It is important to plan ahead of time how the expected object would be excavated, how they would be preserved, where they would be preserved, and weather the final resting place for the object is ready and how the objects will be conveyed to the final resting place” Ameje 2011. 

Ethnography

Ethnography as a concept can be defined as the study of contemporary societies or extant societies with particular reference to their cultural material, believe, social life and other aspect of their contemporary lives. This study is relevant because it helps the student to understand the level of damage and continuity between the archaeological society and the extent or ethnographic society. The ethnographic research in this report is that which was done at the present Radda town in Charanchi local Government Area of Katsina state. Ethnographic survey was also carried out on Radda indigenous technology i.e. blacksmithing. This survey was conducted to establish a relationship between the past and present Nasarawa inhabitants.