International records / Internet Archive

The ancient linear earthworks of Benin and Ishan. Part i: Fieldwork and background information, Part ii: Ceramic and other specialist studies

For over half-a-millennium the tropical rain forests of southern Nigeria have brooded silently over the remains of the longest and most massive earth constructions yet known from the pre-mechanical era (McWhirter: 1980; 129). Four to five times longer than the Great Wall of China and with over a hundred times as much material moved as the Great Pyramid of Cheops, these earthworks cover about six-and-a-half thousand square kilometres (two-and-a-half thousand square miles) of rain forest with a complicated network of enclosures. Their estimated total length is in excess of sixteen thousand kilom…