Edo people
Around the 9th century, the Edo people of what is now southeastern Nigeria developed bronze casts of humans, animals, and legendary creatures. These bronzes, which were used as vessels, amulets, pendants, and sacrificial tools, are among the earliest made bronzes ever found in Nigeria. Most items were part of a burial of a nobleman culture in the northern part of the Benin Empire. Evidence of long distance trade between Benin and Portugal was also discovered through the thousands of glass beads found at Old Cairo at the workshops of Fustat.