Stable lead isotopes have been measured from copper-alloy castings dating from the late first millennium AD to the 19th Century from Igbo Ukwe, Ife, Jenne, Marandet, Ma’aden Ijafen, Benin, the Lower Niger sites on the Forcados and Cross Rivers, the Andoni Creek and Apapa, and from Jebba, Tada and Owo. More recent ethnographic specimens from West Africa were also examined as well as a number of African ores. We conclude that the earliest metals (copper, tin, and perhaps lead) came from African sources, but that Northern Europe became the main source of supply early in the second Millennium, initially by trade across the Sahara, but also by the coast from around the middle of the second Millennium.