About: Durbi Takusheyi

Durbi Takusheyi (or Durbi-ta-kusheyi, meaning "tombs of the chief priest") is a burial site and major archaeological landmark situated about 32 km east of Katsina in northern Nigeria. The burials of the early Katsina rulers span a 200 year period from the 13th / 14th century AD to the 15th / 16th century AD. The recovered sets of artifacts provide material historical clues as to the emergence of Hausa identity and city states. The grave goods comprise a local, indigenous component besides foreign elements which attest to networks that reached far into the Islamic Near East. Katsina represented a focal point for trans-Saharan trade during the late middle ages, a crucial phase in local history during which the Hausa city states emerged.