The Ancient Nok Civilization
The Ancient Nok Civilization
The Nok civilization, existed as early as 1000 B.C., in what is now identified as Nigeria. The culture represents some of the earliest “evidence” of farming and iron smelting in Nigeria. Archaeologists have determined that most of the life size terracotta heads, were sculpted by hand, which is evidence of an advanced artistic society in West African that existed contemporaneously with Ancient Greece as well as Ancient Egypt and Kush as well as other North and East African civilizations.
Far removed geographically from North and East African influence, it cannot be argued that cultures arriving from West Asia or Southern Europe had any direct influence on the advancement of this civilization, which makes it one of the most unique African civilizations during the first millennium B.C. This culture was thriving long before Herodotus began recording the history of the Northern portions of Africa, the area of the continent where his knowledge was limited to. Since no written evidence of this particular culture exists at the present, the history must be re-constructed based on the massive archaeological finds covering this era.
The finely worked resilient sculptures indicate the technical advancement of this society. Most of the sculptures were constructed using a combination of locally available clay and gravel, fired and polished to a smooth finish. Each model individually sculpted to produce a distinctive variety of figures. The most striking aspect of the Nok figures, are the intricately designed hairstyles, and detailed jewelry which adorn the figures with variety, inventiveness, and beauty of their design is a beguiling record of cultivated devotion to body ornamentation.
Evidence of life size heads
http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/...es/figure5.jpg
Nok Dignitary
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_nok_1.jpg
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http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hg/hg_d_nok_d1map.jpg
http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/...es/figure1.jpg
Evidence of an agricultural society
"At least parts of the original cultural deposits constitute today's farming ground. This agricultural soil and the layer beneath it (about 20-30cm thick) represent the former Nok horizon, indicated by scattered finds without any specific concentrations within the excavated areas. Below this horizon finds are restricted to pit-like structures dug into sterile ground. These pits are the only undisturbed features on the site.
More than 7500 artefacts were excavated in total, marking out the assemblages of Ungwar Kura as the most substantial collection of Nok cultural materials scientifically excavated and recorded to date. The finds comprise pottery sherds, fragments of terracotta figurines and a few complete pieces, stone artefacts, mainly huge grinding stones and grinders, as well as ground stone axes. Of particular importance are iron objects, which represent not only the first iron tools from a clear Nok context, but also belong to the earliest finds of iron in West Africa.
Large quantities of charred botanical remains help to reconstruct subsistence and environmental conditions. Archaeobotanical analyses are still in progress, but one of our first results is that pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is consistently present in the cultural deposits of Ungwar Kura. Located in the Nigerian Middle Belt, the environment of the site is at present dominated by Guinea savannah with tall grasses and woodland vegetation. Guinea corn and New World cassava constitute the staple crops, whereas pearl millet only plays a minor role in cultivation. Our recent finds demonstrate that this had been quite different in the past."
http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/...ber/index.html
Most of the people were farmers. The Nok culture was an advanced culture for that time in Western Africa. Over time archeologists have found many artifacts from the Nok culture. The Nok people had a very advanced social system for that time. In the artifacts that the archeologist have found shows that the Nok people were very organized, because even thou they were farmers they had a very advanced social system. They knew how to smelt and forge iron. Nok's civilization was the earliest sub-Saharan civilization that produced life-sized Terracotta. The Nok culture was an Iron Age culture. In the evidences that the archeologists found, show that the people of the Nok culture were farmers and that they used iron to make better farming tools.
http://www.nokculture.com/sitebuilde...louvrefig2.jpg
Sculpture in Louvre Museum
http://youtu.be/iVT--v-fAKw
