Ancient site · Settlement
Nok
The village in southern Kaduna State, Nigeria, where Nok terracotta sculptures were first found in 1928, giving its name to the whole culture. Nok sculptures are hollow fired-clay figures and heads with large triangular or D-shaped eyes, carefully styled hair and jewellery, made from about 900 BCE.
Some show people with slings or bows and arrows. They are among the oldest figurative sculptures south of the Sahara, and may have been part of funeral customs.
- Dates
- c. 1500 BCE – 1 CE; terracottas from c. 900 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 9.50° N, 8.00° E
How we know
No writing existed; dates come from radiocarbon and luminescence on excavated sites; the point marks the area of Nok village.
Nearby sites
- Taruga c. 600–200 BCE (iron smelting c. 4th–3rd century BCE)
- Shum Laka used from c. 30,000 years ago to c. 400 years ago; burials c. 6000 and 1000 BCE
- Gobero c. 7700–6200 and 5200–2500 BCE
- Ounjougou oldest pottery c. 9400 BCE
- Djenné-Djenno c. 250 BCE – 1400 CE
- Tassili n'Ajjer rock art c. 10,000 BCE (debated) to the early centuries CE
Related
- Nok culture archaeological culture
- The world in 1500 BCE: Chariots and Empires chapter