Ife Kingdom

E57148

Ife Kingdom was an ancient Yoruba city-state in what is now southwestern Nigeria, revered as a major cultural and spiritual center and often regarded as the cradle of Yoruba civilization.

Aliases (2)

Statements (45)
Predicate Object
instanceOf Yoruba city-state
ancient city
historical kingdom
archaeologicalSite Ile-Ife archaeological complex
artStyle Ife art
capital Ile-Ife
culturalInfluenceOn Benin Kingdom
Oyo Empire
other Yoruba kingdoms
ethnicGroup Yoruba people
foundationalMyth creation of the world by Oduduwa
origin of the Yoruba people
hasDeity Obatala
Oduduwa
Ogun
Orunmila
hasLanguage Yoruba language
hasMythicStatus navel of the world in Yoruba cosmology
hasRulerTitle Ooni of Ife
hasSuccessionMyth dispersal of Yoruba princes to found other kingdoms
hasUNESCORecognition Ile-Ife artworks exhibited as world heritage of African art
knownFor Ifa divination tradition
advanced metalworking
court art
naturalistic brass heads
religious festivals
terracotta sculptures
locatedIn Nigeria
Southwestern Nigeria
Yorubaland
materialUsedInArt copper alloy
stone
terracotta
modernLocationCorrespondsTo city of Ile-Ife in Osun State, Nigeria
partOf precolonial West Africa
periodOfFlourishing circa 11th–15th centuries CE
politicalStructure city-state
sacred kingship
religiousInstitution Ifa priesthood
Ooni palace cults
religiousTradition Yoruba religion
reveredAs cradle of Yoruba civilization
major cultural center
major spiritual center
tradeActivity regional trade in West Africa

Referenced by (4)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Yoruba
foundedKingdom
Yoruba people
historicalState
Oyo Empire ("Yoruba city-states")
influenced
Kingdom of Benin ("Kingdom of Ife")
neighbor

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