Nigerian Abidemi Babalola Wins Prestigious $300,000 Archaeology Prize
The 2025 Dan David Prize has been awarded to Abidemi Babalola, a US-based Nigerian scholar.
He won the $300,000 archaeology prize for his archaeology work on the history of glass beads.
The Dan David Prize is a major international award that recognises and supports outstanding contributions to studying history and other disciplines that illuminate the human past.
It is considered the “largest history prize in the world”.
The list of the 2025 winners was unveiled on the organisers’ official website.
In his congratulatory post, Saheed Aderinto, the 2025 recipient of the Dan David prize, said the ceremony was held on May 28 in Italy.
Aderinto said Babalola, his long-time friend, researched the history of glass beads.
His work revealed that the history of glass beads dates back to the ancient Ile-Ife.
The 2023 winner stated that Babalola’s discovery has significant implications for Africa’s ancient history.
The work is titled ‘The Ile-Ife glass bead series… and the glass bead roads in West African Archaeology’. The Texas-based scholar will receive a $300,000 cash prize.
Aderinto recalled their relocation to the United States and the academic struggles they faced before achieving success.
“For two decades, Dr. Babalola did numerous archaeological excavations at Ile-Ife, worked in world-class laboratories, and held prestigious fellowships at Harvard University and the University of Cambridge,” he said.
“His hard labour and mind-blowing discoveries further position Ile-Ife in Yoruba history and open new vistas for understanding ancient African civilisation.
“Combining hardcore scientific tools with ethnographic, archaeological, and historical methodologies, Dr. Babalola explicates the cardinal place of glass beads in Ile-Ife and Yoruba culture, placing the history of a material object at the centre of a wide range of experiences that transcend class, gender, power, religion, and authority.”
Babalola obtained his first degree and MSc from the University of Ibadan before relocating to Texas to complete his third-level degree.
Abidemi earned his PhD from Rice University in Houston, Texas, USA.
Babalola is the lead archaeologist on the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) Archaeology Project in Benin City, Nigeria, within the British Museum’s Department of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas (AOA).
