New LiDAR mapping in the Anambra River basin has identified a massive urban network associated with the Igbo-Ukwu culture. The survey reveals thousands of industrial-scale bronze-foundry pits and residential mounds previously hidden beneath the thick forest cover of southeastern Nigeria.
The discovery confirms that the Igbo-Ukwu civilization was part of a highly organized, industrialized urban system that flourished centuries before European contact. The complex spatial arrangement of the foundry sites suggests a sophisticated guild system that controlled the production of the world-renowned Igbo-Ukwu bronze artworks.