NOK CULTURE, NORTH NIGERIA 🇳🇬
The Nok culture (or Nok civilization) is a population whose material remains are named after the Ham village of Nok in Kaduna State of Nigeria, where their terracotta sculptures were first discovered in 1928. The Nok Culture appeared in Nigeria around 1500 BC and vanished under unknown circumstances around 500 AD, having lasted approximately 2,000 years.
Iron use, in smelting and forging tools, appears in Nok culture by at least 550 BC and possibly a few centuries earlier. Data from historical linguistics suggest that iron smelting was independently discovered in the region by 1000 BC.Scientific field work began in 2005 to systematically investigate Nok archaeological sites and to better understand Nok terracotta sculptures within their Iron Age archaeological contex.
Origin
Breunig and Rupp hypothesized, "Their origin is unknown, but since the plants they used as crops (especially millet) are indigenous to the Sahel region, a northern homeland is more probable than any other." Breunig explains: "The people of the Nok Culture Must have come from somewhere else. So far, however, we have not found out what region, though we suspect the Sahel zone in West Africa."
The function of Nok terracotta sculptures is still unknown. For the most part, the terracotta is preserved in the form of scattered fragments. That is why Nok art is well known today only for the heads, both male and female, whose hairstyles are particularly detailed and refined. The statues are in fragments because the discoveries are usually made from alluvial mud, in terrain made by the erosion of water. The terracotta statues found there are hidden, rolled, polished, and broken. Rarely are works of great size conserved intact making them highly valued on the international art market.
The first Nok terracotta was discovered in 1928 by Colonel Dent Young, a co-owner of a mining partnership, near the village of Nok in Kaduna State, Nigeria.The terracotta was accidentally unearthed at a level of 24 feet (7 m) from an alluvial tin mine. Young presented the sculptures to the Museum of the Department of Mines in Jos.
Descendants
The area that became Nigeria has been occupied for thousands of years by early humans,with the first being the Nok cultural areas,followed by Lejja, in Enugu, now southeast Nigeria, dating over 3000BC. The first archeology of cultural significance down south of Nigeria that is linked to the present inhabitants was recorded at Igbo ukwu (8TH-9TH century AD) followed by Ile ife (12th century and) and then Benin bronzes (16-17th century AD).
As each share cultural and artistic similarity with the Nok culture found in Nok, Sokoto, and Katsina, the Niger-Congo-speaking Yoruba, Jukun, or Dakakari peoples may be descendants of the Nok peoples. Based on stylistic similarities with the Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of the Yoruba kingdom of Ife and the Bini kingdom of Benin may also be continuations of the traditions of the earlier Nok culture.