Nigeria: Archaeologist – Abidemi Babalola has won the world’s largest history prize ‘The 2025 Dan David Prize’. With the prize he will receive $300,000 prize money for his work on the history of glass beads.
The achievement was disclosed by the TI paper on Thursday that Babalola has won $300,000 cash prize at a ceremony held in Italy.
Abidemi Babalola is a US based Nigerian Archaeologist who won the Dan David Prize award for the world’s largest award for research in history. He is an anthropological archaeologist at the British Museum, who uses material science to uncover the history of technological development in pre-modern West Africa.
Reportedly, his research has transformed the understanding of how glass was produced in Africa, by proving that glass production in the region predated European colonialism and was developed independently.
Abidemi is active in public outreach in Nigeria and showcases the knowledge he produces through archaeological works to these communities that are connected to history.
As per the sources, Abidemi Babalola is currently serving as lead archaeologist ahead of construction of the upcoming Museum of West African Arts which is set to open in Benin City, Nigeria.
It was also disclosed that nine winners are working in Africa, Asia, Europe and America, emerging in the early stage of their career to receive a $300,000 prize.
Unveiling this, the source quoted, “The work of this year’s winner ranges from enlisting the methods of archaeology to explore Nazi death camps to rewriting what they know about the development and use of glass in Africa.”
Following this, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Dan David Prize is an international group of awards that recognizes outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light over the human past.
The Dan David Prize is based at Tel Aviv University, which is widely regarded as the world’s largest history award. It honours early and mid-career scholars whose innovative work reshapes the understanding of history.
Notably, the winners of 2025 are exploring a wide range of subjects from the notebook of Isaac Newton’s roommate to the history and traditions of Ethiopian Jews.