This book contains papers read at the conference "West African archaeology, New developments, New perspectives", co-sponsored by the Nigerian Field Society and the Department of Archaeology of the University of Sheffield, with the support of the University's Humanities Research Institute, which was held at the HRI in Sheffield on 27 June 2009. They are a testimony to the fact that - for all the constraints imposed upon it - archaeological research in West Africa continues to be pursued actively and to make a significant contribution to the subject in the continent as a whole.