The United States has launched a $125,000 U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) grant to the Centre for Memories, Enugu, to conserve and digitally document the ancient Lejja Iron-Smelting Site in Enugu State.

The project, known as the Nchekwaba: Lejja Iron-Smelting Site project, is aimed at conserving and physically preserving the site, which dates to approximately 2000 BCE and is regarded as one of the earliest known iron-smelting sites in sub-Saharan Africa.

Speaking at the launch yesterday, U.S. Consul General Brandon Hudspeth said the project would combine conservation with digital documentation techniques to ensure that Nigeria’s cultural heritage is preserved for future generations.

Hudspeth said the initiative represented a continuation of the longstanding partnership between the United States and Nigeria, adding that the documentation would help protect historical sites from environmental degradation and other threats.

“The iron smelting site carries this work into the future, and it will do so by combining conservation and digital documenting techniques, and that will help us preserve physical sites that face the passage of time, whether that is environmental degradation or other threats.

“These stories will not be lost because of this work that we are doing today,” he said.

He said the $125,000 grant awarded to the Centre for Memories would support the digital documentation of the site and build on the history of collaboration between the two countries in cultural heritage preservation.