The ancient Yoruba art can be dated back to several thousands of years. Its forms, styles, motifs and aesthetic values are immeasurable. They were made with superb precision. The message it delivers is also clear. The finishing is excellent. One wonders how the people of that time were able to produce such masterpieces of art. 
Yoruba ancient art can be found in Yorubaland, Nigeria in Esie (Located in Kwara State), Ile-Ife (Located in Osun State), Owo (Located in Ondo State), Oyo (Located in Oyo State), and so on. Ile-Ife, according to the history of the Yorubas is where everything started, art inclusive. When you are talking about civilisation in Yorubaland, you must start from Ile-Ife, because Ile-Ife is the place where human beings started to set up settlement before they spread all over the world. As human existence also goes hand in hand with civilisation, and civilisation can also be linked to art, it means the origin of Yoruba art is Ile-Ife. Henry John Drewal classifies Yoruba ancient art periods in Ile-Ife into:  ​

    Archaic Era, before AD. 800 when minimalist style stone monolith combine with iron were made.
    Pre-Pavement Era, 800-1000- stylised stone and terracotta pieces were produced.
    Early-Pavement Era, 1000-1200-elaborately decorated pavements in shards and stones, refined: idealized naturalism in terracotta and metal work.
    Late-Pavement Era, 1200-1400-increasing stylisation.
    Post-Pavement Era, 1400-1600? Increasing stylisation.
    Stylised-Humanism Era-1600? -Present style of Yoruba art in recent centuries.
    [Henry John Drewal, Yoruba - Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, 1995, The Centre for African Art, NY. P.46]

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A town near Ile-Ife called Iwo Eleru showers more light on the pre-history art of Ile-Ife. The data collected from this site dated back to the Stone Age period. The human remains found there which were identified as Negroid dated back to 8000BC. The artefacts found showed that the people living there were Yoruba speaking people. Decorated pattern with combed and roulette pottery dated back to 100BC were also found abundantly. They resembled the ones found in Ile-Ife also. The way the shrines and walls were decorated and designed demonstrates the high quality aesthetic values of ancient Ile-Ife. 
There were monumental sculptures, planned complexes of buildings, streets, and courtyards and domestic and communal alters covered with shard mosaics and elaborately patterned potsherd and some pavements dating to as early as the eleventh century. Among those things unearthed in Ile-Ife by archaeologists are exquisite terracotta sculptures and vessels depicting a wide variety of human, animal, and other worldly subjects. „Their number and remarkable refinement, diversity in style, subject matter, and the scale suggest that they were the outgrowth of a wide-spread and highly specialised sculpting tradition in clay that may have begun about AD 800“ says Drewal: 46. 
What I described in terracotta tradition as immeasurable beauty can also be found in other forms of art like stone sculptures and lost-wax castings in copper and brass. Ancient Ife art works were not only for the rulers, they were also for wide cross-section of the people in the society. Opa Oranmiyan (The staff of the last son of Oduduwa who was the first man to be created.), four meters tall proofs the knowledge of Ife artists in the process of iron and stone combination form of art. 
Nearly eighty percent of art works to be found in Yorubaland in the ancient period were mostly made for religious purposes. The were Opa Orisa-Oko (one of the 401 Irunmole's staff ), Adaasa (Obatala's cutlass, which he uses to ward off evils.), Ada Eledesi (Ogun's cutlass.), Odo Sango (Sango's seat. He is one of the 401 Irunmole.), Ibeji (Twins. If one dies, another one is carved to represent the death one.), Ose Sango (Sango's axe.), Seere Sango (Sango's rattle.), Ide Osun (Osun's bangles. Osun is one of the 401 Irunmole.), Opon Ifa (Ifa tray. It is for divination.), etc. They are purely religious objects made in the beauty of the highest order. 
The right name for the ancient Yoruba art is sacred art. Maybe, that might be the reason why an Austrian artist, Susanne Wenger who lives in Yorubaland, Nigeria called her art sacred art. It was and is so sacred; they have great links to shrines or religious groves. The example of this is Ita Yemoo (Important religious center in Ilesa, Osun State, Nigeria.) in Ilesa where many terracotta, castings and pavements were found. All these found items are highly religious in nature. Another example is Olokun grove in Ile-Ife. Olokun grove is where Olokun literarily translated to sea has been worshipped. Many historical artefacts, which were linked to religion, were found in this site in Ile-Ife when digging took place in the area. Part of the art works found at the site was called Ori Olokun, Olokun's head that was adopted as the name of a cultural centre established in the area in the early 1970s. 
Hardly can one differentiate Yoruba ancient art throughout Yorubaland, either one is in Ile-Ife, Owo, Esie, Oyo, or anywhere in Yorubaland, they looked alike. Terracotta, brass works, ivory making, pottery, traditional cloth design, wall designs, decoration of temples and religious sites, beaded crowns, bead works, all of them have the same cultural, spiritual and religious backgrounds. 
The reason came from what I have rightly stated earlier, Yoruba philosophy of life, Yoruba outlook to life. It is the same all over the land. Abiodun calls it Jijora-resemblance(Abiodun: 65). Yoruba ancient art forms were both abstracticism and realism. The ancient artist would use abstract to convey complicated and tougher messages, while he used realism to convey clear and uncomplicated messages. ​​​​​​​​​​​

by Prince (Babalawo) Adigun Olosun, MA, MA, PGDJ, PGCR