NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Nok

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Nok sculpture, terracotta, Louvre

The Nok civilization appeared in Nigeria around 500 B.C. and mysteriously vanished around 200 AD. The civilization’s social system was extremely advanced. The Nok civilization was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized Terracotta. Nok culture terracottas are heralded as the prime evidence of the refinement of African civilizations, and it is suggested that the society eventually evolved into the later Jos Plateau community. The refinement of this civilisation is attested to by the image of a Nok dignitary at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The dignitary is portrayed wearing a "shepherds crook" affixed with an elastic material to the right arm.[1] The dignitary is also portrayed sitting with flared nostrils, and an open mouth suggesting rhetorical performance. According to some accounts, based on artistic similarities between early Yoruba art forms and Nok forms, there may be connections between Nok culture and contemporary Jos Plateau people. Later brass and terracotta sculptures of the Ife and Benin cultures show significant similarities with those found at Nok. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1660x2500, 2063 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Nok Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1660x2500, 2063 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Nok Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create... This article is about the museum. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC - 450s BC Events and Trends 509 BC - Foundation of the Roman Republic 508 BC - Office of pontifex maximus created... Social structure (also referred to as a social system) is a system in which people forming the society are organized by a patterns of prelationships. ... Sub-Saharan Africa, Africa south of the Sahara Desert, is the term used to describe those countries of Africa that are not part of North Africa. ... Terra cotta is a hard semifired waterproof ceramic clay used in pottery and building construction. ...

1 Iron Age in Africa
2 Nok Civilization
3 History of Rediscovery
4 Descendant of an Older Culture?
5 References
6 Further reading
7 Footnotes
8 See also

Iron Age in Africa

Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in Nok civilization in Africa by 500 BC. ^[1] Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC - 450s BC Events and Trends 509 BC - Foundation of the Roman Republic 508 BC - Office of pontifex maximus created...

Nok Civilization

Nok sculptures also depict animals and humans. Their function is still unknown, since scientific field work is still missing. 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. Alluvium (from the Latin, alluvius, from alluere, to wash against) is soil or sediments deposited by a river or other running water. ...

Female Statue
48 cm tall
Age: 900 to 1,500 years

Image File history File linksMetadata Nok1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Nok1. ...

History of Rediscovery

The Nok civilization was rediscovered in 1928 on the Jos Plateau during tin mining. The first pieces were unearthed but then forgotten. In 1932, a group of 11 statues in perfect condition were discovered near the city of Sokoto. Since that time, statues coming from the city of Katsina were brought to light. Although there are similarities to the classical Nok style, the connection between them is not clear yet. Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Jos Plateau is a plateau region covering 7770 kmÂ² having an average altitude of 1280 metres, with its highest point at 2010 metres, which is the only region of temperate climate of Nigeria. ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1932 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Location of Sokoto in Nigeria, Sokoto is a city located in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, near to where the Sokoto River and Rima River meet. ... Katsina is an old city of Northern Nigeria 160 miles South East of the city of Sokoto, and 84 m. ...

Later still, in 1943, near the village of Nok, in the center of Nigeria, a new series of clay figurines were discovered by accident while mining tin. A worker had found a head and had taken it back to his home for use as a scarecrow, a role that it filled (successfully) for a year in a yam field. It then drew the attention of the director of the mine who bought it. He brought it to the city of Jos and showed it to the trainee civil administrator, Bernard Fagg, an archaeologist who immediately understood its importance. He asked all of the miners to inform him of all of their discoveries and was able to amass more than 150 pieces. Afterwards, Bernard and Angela Fagg ordered systematic excavations that revealed many more profitable lucky finds dispersed over a vast area, much larger than the original site. In 1977, the number of terra cotta objects discovered in the course of the mining excavation amounted to 153 units, mostly from secondary deposits (the statuettes had been carted by floods near the valleys) situated in dried-up riverbeds in savannahs in Northern and Central Nigeria (the Southwestern portion of the Jos Plateau). Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the metallic chemical element. ... Scarecrows in a rice paddy in Japan For other uses, see Scarecrow (disambiguation). ... Yams at Brixton market Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae). ... Location of Jos in Nigeria Jos is a small picturesque town in the Nigerian middle belt (population 799,100). ... For referencing in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Citing sources. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... Savannah redirects here. ...

Later, new discoveries had been found in an increasingly larger area, including the Middle Niger Valley and the Lower Benue Valley. Map of Niger River with Niger River basin in green The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending over 2500 miles (about 4180 km). ... The Benue River or BÃ©nouÃ© River is the major tributary of the Niger River. ...

Descendant of an Older Culture?

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Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007)

Artisans who worked around the Nok used the same material they used for their utility pottery for their model figurines, a coarse grain clay.

Certain statues could reach 1.20 meters, suggesting an excellent control of modeling techniques such as cooking in open air. As many of the statues are hollow, the sculptors took care to maintain an equal thickness in all parts and hollowed out the parts that could have exploded when fired.

Nok rider and horse
53 cm tall
Age: 1,400 to 2,000 years

This technical skill, like the stylistic control noted in these works, suggests that Nok art could have been the descendant of an already long artistic tradition. Nowhere does one detect experimentation. The characteristics of the style are already precise. The eye draws the attention by its importance. It is sometimes an arc and sometimes a triangle above which an eyebrow counterbalances the curve of the higher eyelid. Image File history File linksMetadata Nok2. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Nok2. ...

References

Most of this article was originally a translation of this version of fr:Nok (civilisation) in the French-language Wikipedia. Other references are:

Footnotes

^ Duncan E. Miller and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Early Metal Working in Sub Saharan Africa' Journal of African History 35 (1994) 1-36; Minze Stuiver and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa' Current Anthropology 1968. Tylecote 1975 (see below)

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