The processes which led to the establishment of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology date back to 1946 when as a post-graduate student, Kenneth Onwuka Dike (later Professor of History and the first Nigerian Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan), discovered the potentials of archaeology in providing the missing time-depth to Nigerian History. The discovery came when he read the article by Thursthan Shaw, who later became the founding Head of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. After Professor Dike was appointed the Vice Chancellor of this great university, he ensured that a research professorship in Archaeology was one of the three to be created in the Institute of African Studies. This was the first step towards the establishment of a Department of Archaeology. Thus in 1963 Professor Thurstan Shaw appointed to that research professorship as well as headship of the Archaeology Unit at the Institute of African Studies.

Senate and Council approved the establishment of the Department of Archaeology in the Faculty of Science for the 1970/71 session. It has existed since 1962 as a research unit of Archaeology in the Institute of African Studies. That research unit successfully executed several major projects which included excavations at Igbo-Ukwu in Anambra State, Iwo Eleru in Ondo, Daima in Borno State, Benue valley, and Ijaye Orile in Oyo State. The Department’s Teaching Museum was started off with materials recovered from these expeditions. In 1967, members of the Archaeology Research Unit of the Institute of African Studies started giving lectures in Nigeria Pre-History to students of the History Department in the Faculty of Arts. The Department moved in April, 1987 to a wing of its permanent building on Appleton Road (near the Mathematics/Statistics Complex). As at today, the Department has fully occupied its permanent buildings. Although the Department was established in 1970, the undergraduate Archaeology programme was not begun until 1971.  

The Department started off by offering combined honours degree option with some related subjects in both the Faculties of Science and Arts. At the end of the 1976/77 session, the first set of students to take the single honours degree in Archaeology graduated. Since then, Archaeology has been offered as both single and combined honours subject in the Faculties of Science and Arts. Combinations are available with Botany, Geography, Geology and Zoology in the Faculty of Science and with Classics, History, Islamic Studies and Religious Studies in the Faculty of Arts. The Department at present has a total of about 300 undergraduate and 13 postgraduate students. 

From the 1982/83 session, the Department has been offering an Anthropology option and the Department formally became the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology as from the 1983/84 session. Students can graduate with either a B.A. or B.Sc. in Anthropology.  After series of Workshops and Seminars, the Department came up with a proposal for the establishment of a Masters programme in Professional and Academic Tourism in 1996. The programme, which was established at the Centre for Sustainable Development, started in 2010/2011 session. It has since been graduating students in Professional and Academic Masters and Ph.D. in Tourism Development. The Department also started a Professional Masters in Forensic Science in Archaeology in 2013 and has graduated more than 100 students.  Proposal for Academic Masters in Forensic Science in Archaeology had been prepared for approval at the Faculty and Senate and ratification by the University Council. 

The Department operates a display museum and a Departmental Archaeology Store for researchers. There is also a teaching collection of artifacts and other archaeological materials from African and Overseas sources. We also have Library stocked with most recent publications in archaeology and anthropology. The Department has a photographic room, drawing office, archaeology workrooms and laboratories (including palynology, geoarchaeological and forensic science archaeology laboratories). There are over 3,000 35 mm transparencies on various aspects of Archaeology while there are over 3000 microscope slides of the pollen grains and spores of Nigerian plants. From time to time the Department organises Public Lectures and Seminars on Archaeology and Anthropology. A new Anthropology Museum is underway.

Vision
To make the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology a destination for foreign and local scholars.

Mission
To reinvent tradition and African identity as a new cultural process and values for a new world order based on sustainable environment, viable and enduring socio-economic partnership, democratic political institution and credible intellectual integrity.

Philosophy
The guiding philosophy of the Department has been the following: 
To Ø  Ascertain the cultural and natural heritage of the Nigerian peoples with a view to: 
     Ø  Shed light on how they interacted with one another and the rest of the environment from the earliest time known; 
     Ø  Explore how such insights might contribute to the promotion of national unity and identity, self-reliance and ecologically sustainable development.

Objectives
The primary objective of the Department is to offer a practically oriented Archaeology/Anthropology programme relevant for meaningful human existence at several levels – national and international – but with special focus on Africa. To this end, Social-Cultural/Physical Anthropology and Archaeology are treated as related components of the study of man. The main fields of the Department at the moment are Archaeology and Social/Cultural Anthropology and in future, we hope to offer Physical Anthropology. Material culture occupies a central place, serving as a major bridge between archaeology and Ethnography. The orientation for all these fields is ecological. Consequently, Environmental Archaeology is the other major point of focus of our programme. The geographical focus of our programmes is Africa and the primary aim of both teaching and research programme is not only to properly situate the hitherto greatly maligned African man but to offer programmes that contribute directly and constructively to African peoples’ development and progress as well as to their being properly understood by others.   Our Department has Impacted the Society Positively in various ways. Many of our lecturers are consultants to the various Cultural and Tourism Ministries and parastatals in Nigeria. We have impacted the various policies of the Federal, State and Local Government in the nation through our teaching programmes and consultancy services.  Most of the personnel in the Cultural and Tourism Ministries and parastatals are products of our department. They are Civil Servants at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Information, National Tourism Development Cooperation (NTDC) and some occupying position of Directors in the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM). Others work at the Centre for Black Arts and African Arts and Culture (CBAAAC), Council for Arts and Culture. Some work in foreign embassies, banks, law enforcement agencies, and as Customs officers.     Our products are lecturing in many Universities in Nigeria, University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Jos, University of Benin, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife, University of Ilorin, Kwara Stae University, Malete, and some others as academic and non-academic staff.  One of ours is at the University of North Carolina, occupying the Chair of Africana Studies Department. At Arizona State University of Anthropology one of our product is a Professor of African Archaeology. Many of our ex-students are PhD students in various universities in United States of America and in Britain. We have one of our ex-students spending his post doctorate at the Institute of African Studies, at Cambridge University, in UK. Our staff have generated well over one thousand publications in reputable journals and books, published locally and abroad. They are well travelled and experienced and have served as consultants to many governments, private and international bodies.    

As at the present time we have fifteen Academic Staff Members ( 7 Professors, 1 Reader, 4 Senior Lecturers, and 3 Lecturer 1) and 10 Non Academic Staff. (1 chief Technologies, 2 Assistant Technologists, 1 Principal Technical Officer, 1 Art Officer, 1 Principal Executive Officer, 1 Executive Officer, 1 Museum and Information Officer and 1 Senior Data Processing Officer). We have 280 Undergraduates and 35 Postgraduates from Masters to PhD Level.