Origins of west African civilizations: the ancient Nok culture (1500BC-1BC) (Patreon)

In the mid 20th century, archeologists came across a number of intriguing zoomorphic and anthropomorphic sculptures in the village of Nok, in central Nigeria. Over the years, additional discoveries revealed hundreds of sculptures and dozens of well-preserved iron furnaces across several ancient sites that were estimated to be around 2,500 years old. These ancient sites were collectively refered to as the Nok culture, and constitute one of Africa's oldest civilizations outside the Nile valley.

Recent research on the Nok culture sites has greatly expanded our knowledge of this ancient African society, revealing the settlement patterns, religious practices, art tradition, and iron technology of the Nok populations. The new studies have also revised the chronology of the Nok culture, pushing its beginnings back to around 1,500BC and its decline to the turn of the common era.

The antiquity and longevity of the Nok Culture makes it an indelible part of any history of the continent’s history and artistic heritage. The sophisticated level of artistic expression, social institutions and economic systems of the Nok culture enable us to shed more light on the emergence of west Africa's oldest kingdoms.

This article explores the history of the ancient Nok culture, the origin and settlement of its population, the meanings of its art tradition and religious practices, the invention of iron smelting, and Nok's relationship with later kingdoms.

Nok terracotta from various museums, dated to the 9th-5th century BC. depicting heavily adorned figures watching over scenes of daily life.

'some Nok sculptures give a compelling impression that they represent gods'

Outline of the Nok culture in central Nigeria.

The distribution area of the Nok Culture, based on Nok terracotta figurines found between 1943 and 1976, encompasses an oval-shaped area of about 50,000 km2 west of the Jos Plateau, stretching about 480 km from Kagara in the northwest to Katsina Ala in the southeast, and 160 km from Abuja to the foot of the Jos Plateau in the east. This area has since doubled in size as recent studies have uncovered more Nok sites near the core area.

The first Nok sculptures were uncovered accidentally in the 1920s and 40s, before professional archeological digs in the 1960s by Bernard Fagg uncovered what at the time was Africa's oldest iron age society and figurative art outside ancient Egypt. Bernard presented a considerable collection of about 150 individual objects, many of which were atleast 2,500 years old. Since then, there has been a high demand on the international art market for these sculptures as they are the oldest of their kind in west Africa. Unfortunately, this demand has led to extensive looting and the irretrievable destruction of contexts in which the artefacts were found, which were the only way to gain more knowledge about the Nok society that produced them.

(The Nok culture of central Nigeria pg 46)

The Nok culture was originally thought to date back to the west African Early Iron Age, which began around 500 BC. Early Archaeological digs during the 1960s and 70s found evidence of iron smelting forges along with the terracotta fragments from artistic sculptures, which led them to believe both existed at the same time. More recently, archeologists led by Peter Breunig and Gabriele Franke have established that the Neolithic Nok society emerged much earlier. Using new evidence from atleast 200 radiocarbon dates have been obtained from 80 settlement sites, their results suggest that the Nok culture actually began around 1500 BC. On the basis of these dates, three Nok phases have been identified; Early Nok 1500–900 BC, Middle Nok 900–300 BC, and Late Nok 300–1 BC. The terracotta and iron furnances for which the Nok Culture is most well known are associated with the Middle phase.

(A Chronology of the Central Nigerian Nok Culture pg 258-262, 267)

Origin and settlement of the Nok culture: migrant farmers and enigmatic pits.

The earliest evidence of settlement and farming in the Nok region goes back to around the middle of the second millennium BC, with atleast 9 settlement sites falling into the time period between 1600 and 1000 BC. They indicate that people growing pearl millet were living in the Nok region, initially utilizing stone tools and making domestic pottery as well as a few terracota artworks. The origins of the Nok population are unclear as there is no evidence of preceding inhabitants in the archeological sites, meaning it is likely that the Nok people emigrated from another region.

(Early Nok or not pg 264-272, A Chronology of the Central Nigerian Nok Culture pg 263

The first generations of these 'immigrant farmers' seem to have preferred mountainous regions for their settlements, as some of the oldest radiocarbon dates originate from sites found on hilltops or in higher slopes. Settlements covered small areas with only a few dwellings on each site, but were densely settled with sites measuring 5arces being separated by just 1-2km of farmland. Nok communities were characterized by a certain kind of mobility in which new generations moved to different locations within the local area. This frequent relocation could be due to the rapidly depleting soil quality, shifting cultivation or for social reasons.

Their houses were typically constructed using degradable materials such as wood and plant stalks and a few of them have remained. Lumps of clay with twig impressions are found regularly in excavations and demonstrate the use of wattle and daub for the construction of walls. The discovery of a house foundations at Puntun Dutse comprising of a circular stone foundation is one of the more exceptional structures from the early Nok sites.

(Die archäologischen Fundkontexte pg 11-13, An outline of recent studies pg 242-247, Crossroads / Carrefour Sahel pg 21)

the settlement of Pangwari on a gentle slope.

stone base of a home at Puntun Dutse.

Given the acidic nature of the soil, no human or animal bones have been preserved, its therefore difficult to determine if the Nok population kept domestic animals or went out to hunt for their meat. There were some animals among the artistic sculptures that represent snakes, birds or monkeys, but few were domestic, save for quadrupeds that may represent horses, donkeys or felines.

Fragments of domestic pottery found at Taruga in the 1960s shed light on the domestic food preparation of the Nok population. They mostly consisted of two vessel types; bowls and globular pots, which were often profusely decorated. The pottery analysis has indicates that Nok sites are often not single-phased but were occupied during different times. There are atleast 6 pottery groups in the Nok sites that have been studied, these include the Puntun Dutse group (15th-11th century BC), the Ido group (10th–9th century BC), the Ifana group (900- 770 BC), the Pangwari group (ca 800–550 BC), the Tsaunim Gurara group (ca 800–400 BC), and the Pandauke group (ca 6th to 1st century BC).

(Nok: African sculpture pg 86, A Chronology of the Central Nigerian Nok Culture pg 269-270)

Based on an analysis of the lipid residue found in ceramic pots, it has been identified that the Nok population likely consumed leaves from plants such as African eggplant, okra, and cowpea, still widely used today. Interestingly, they also found traces of honey, which could also have been used as a food source, or in fermenting drinks. But the staple food consumed at Nok was pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), and finger millet, whose charred remains appear across the entire range of the Nok culture and in virtually all sites.

(Archaeobotanical Studies at Nok sites pg 1-13, Honey-collecting in prehistoric West Africa, Pits at Pangwari pg 276, 292)

Some of the Nok settlement sites such as Pangwari contained pits found near presumed burial sites. The structures are of circular or irregular shape measuring between 1–2 m in diameter and occasionally up to 2 m in depth. These pits were paved with terracota, and lined with grinding stones, as well as terracota statuettes and domestic pottery. Archeologists are unsure about the function of these pits, which occur in other Neolithic African sites across west and central Africa. The presence of grinding stones and finds of pearl millet point to food preparation, which, however, must not necessarily have taken place in a household context, but more likely as part of a ritual.

(Pits at Pangwari pg 294-295, An Outline of Recent Studies on the Nigerian Nok Culture pg 248)

Terracotta vessel with a face in deep relief from Janruwa AD, Excavated in 2006

Tradition and art of the Nok culture: Burial practices, Ritual and social institutions.

The Middle Nok phase is considered the main phase of the Nok Culture with a large spatial extension, terracotta figurines and extensive iron working.

The terracotta sculptures found in the Nok culture region are the oldest large-scale of their kind in West Africa and the tradition to produce them is confirmed to date back to the 9th century BC. Production of the sculptures continued for atleast five centuries before rapidly stopped around the turn of the 4th century BC, when they were seemingly replaced by new ceramic styles. The majority of these sculptures are located in two main types of sites that are rarely associated with active settlement -ritual sites and burial sites. The first of these sites contains deliberately positioned stone arrangements combined with clay vessels and occasionally terracotta fragments. The second of these contain large parts of one or more terracotta sculptures which were mostly intentionally deposited.

(An Outline of Recent Studies on the Nigerian Nok Culture pg 249, A Chronology of the Central Nigerian Nok Culture pg 267)

The sites of Ifana and Pangwari where several terracotta figurines were found, are located at the fringe of active settlements or within abandoned settlements. They both contained several terracota fragments within an area lined with stones or within a deep pit. Pottery analysis and radiocarbon measurements indicate a multi-phased occupation of the sites, with the Pangwari pit cache being made in the later periods. It is thus likely that the abandoned settlements became ritual sites, perhaps seen as a place of the ancestors.

(An Outline of Recent Studies on the Nigerian Nok Culture pg 249)

The excavations at Utak Kamuan Garage Kagoro were the first to find Nok terracota figurines in undisturbed context. Nine self-contained blocks of finds were found at about 1.5 meters distance from each other. Each contained jumbled terracotta fragments belonging to several different figures, none of them complete. The figures were found to have been intentionally broken and deposited individually on the floor, indicating a form of ritual practice that was part of the religious practices of Nok socities.

(El origen de las sociedades complejas en el África pg 372)

Fragments of one or more terracotta figurines embedded in a pit-like structure at the site of Utak Kamuan Garaje Kagoro.

Ifana 1, planum photo of Bef. 2 after complete exposure at -80 cm, excavation 2011

The archeologists surmise that the sculptures are closely associated with Nok burial practices. Despite the lack of preserved bones, evidence from organic decaying matter and grave goods indicate that some of these sites were cemeteries. Large fragments of terracotta along with broken pieces of sculptures were found next to the burials, although none were intact. They seem to have been purposely buried underground, sometimes on or under a bed of stones. In other instances, there are distinctive markers such as upright standing stones which are arranged in a row. Charcoal remains were also found, providing evidence that fire was involved in the ritual.

(An Outline of Recent Studies on the Nigerian Nok Culture pg 251, Die archäologischen Fundkontexte pg 69-70, 96-97)

A similar burial practice was uncovered at Ife at the 'Obalara’s Land' site where archeologists found a group of already damaged terracotta, which had been deliberately buried. The site was interpreted as a shrine and is radiocarbon dated to about 1190–1470 AD. While this might not suggest a direct connection between Ife and Nok, its evidence that many West African societies have shared a latent connection for several millennia in which they used sculptures as symbolic expressions of their belief systems

(Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba pg 102, 176-177, Crossroads / Carrefour Sahel pg 24)

grave stones of the Nok Culture from the site Pangwari

The terracota art of the Nok culture: manufacture, motifs and meanings.

Nok terracotta figures are divided into two genres; lone sculptures that are standing, sitting or kneeling, and vessels with figure applications or depictions in high and low relief.

Most Nok sculptures depict adult men and women, and there are a few basic gestures and renderings, such that one can speak of a typical "Nok posture” or "Nok eyes". The figures are shown with elaborate hairstyles and some with facial scarifications. The delineations of the almond-shaped eyes, hands, legs, feet and torsos are fairly uniform across all sites. The size of the sculptures ranges from a few centimeters to over a meter in height, they include life-size sculptures, and they all apply a 1:3 head to body proportion typical in the later art of Ife and Benin. Many of them are shown wearing accessories such as arm rings and anklets (presumably made of ivory or iron), knifes, belts and other forms of jewelery. They also wear variety of clothing including loincloths, garmets with plaited cords, headgear that includes sea-shells.

(Die archäologischen Fundkontexte pg 15-18, The Nok Terracotta Sculptures of Pangwari pg 320-321)

Kneeling male figures, Nok culture, Yale university art gallery 

Daji Gwana 1, the terracotta figure #198 from Bef. 1 (a) before and (b) after the restoration, excavation 2011.

Nok sculpture depicting a harvest scene, quai branly,

Utak Kamuan Garaje Kagoro, diagnostic terracotta fragments from Bef. H (Part 3/3), excavation 2008

There are some figures that wear profusions of beads, anklets, bracelets, and collar chains/bands, whose headgear, posture and careful rendering of the eyes and faces may be depictions of deities. according to one archeologist, some Nok heads and figures “give the compelling impression as if they represent deities or mythical creatures.”

There are also some human-animal figures, combining the features of felines, birds and snakes with humans, which may be assumed to have shamanistic significance, where the shamans take on the qualities of the beings into which they are transformed. There are also depictions of figures with deformities and diseases, which again finds parallels with the Ife art at the 'Oblara's land' site. Another curious sculpture depicts a boat with two paddlers, carrying cargo on a river (possibly along the Gurara tributary of the Niger river). This roughly 3,000 year old depiction is one of the oldest evidence for riverine navigation in west Africa after the 8,000-year old Dufuna canoe, and indicates that the Nok engaged in long-distance regional trade possibly in sea-shell (from the Atlantic coast) as well as gemstones and iron.

(Nok: African Sculpture pg 62-64, Die archäologischen Fundkontexte pg 115-118, The Nok Terracotta Sculptures of Pangwari pg 322-326, Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba pg 177-178)

Pangwari, trench C. Relief of a dugout canoe with two persons and cargo

Pangwari, trench E, feature 11. Therianthropic sculpture combining attributes of man and bird,  Pangwari, trench E, feature 10. Therianthropic sculpture combining attributes of man and feline predator

Nok terracota were made with clay mixed with a coarse temper of quartz, feldspar, mica (the components of the local granite) and fireclay, while their torsos were built using coiling technique. At the end of the sculpting process, a thin clay slip was applied to the sculpture’s surface, without which, the coarse temper would be exposed and give the surface a rough appearance. After drying, the figures were most likely fired at approximately 600 to 800°C in an open fire, a firing process resembling practices still used in Nigeria today.

(The Nok Terracotta Sculptures of Pangwari pg 320)

Nok sculptures remained stylistically consistent over the entire five centuries of production, using the same motifs despite being made in different locations and contexts. Geochemical analysis of terracotta from different sites reveals that the clay used for making the terracotta was composed in a very uniform way, while that of ordinary potsherds was completely different. This indicates that local clays were used for everyday objects, but a single or at least limited sources were used for the terracottas. This is taken as an indication of their relatively centralized production, and helps to explain why over the whole area their style is so homogeneous.

(Early west African Iron smelting pg 338-339)

The sculptures were likely made by wandering craftsmen, and used for a specific pourposes before they became obsolete. Nok sculptures were likely derived from a complex tradition created by specialists created in some sort of social institution controlled and maintained the rules of the complex ritual world the sculptures were made for. The terracota sculptures were produced by means of a rigorous and standard pattern that can be noted by the consistency of stylistic attributes and relative homogeneity. The levels of standardization were most likely a result of a set of rules created by a powerful social class that had the capacity to enforce them.

(El origen de las sociedades complejas en el África pg 364, Crossroads / Carrefour Sahel pg 21)

Composite of Nok culture terracottas from Pangwari, Seated male sculpture, quai branly male figure, yale university, Female figure, yale university.

Ifana 1, terracotta figures from Bef. 2 (Part 1/2), excavation 2011.

Nok terracotta figurines depicting a man with a shell on his head and a male torso, Pangwari site

The Iron technology of the Nok culture: dating, invention and use.

The discovery of terracota figurines and domestic pottery near iron furnaces indicates that iron production constituted a salient part of Nok society. The first of the Nok furnaces to be studied were at the site of Taruga, these were large, low-shaft furnaces, consisting of pits dug into the ground to a depth of about 40cm, with a diameter of 150cm. Initial excavations during the 1960s dated these shafts to around 591 BC, using data from atleast 11 sites. The site of Taruga has thus remained for over 50 years, as one of the earliest West African iron production sites.

(Nok: African sculpture pg 87)

Other Nok furnaces have since been discovered, such as at the site of Baidesuru, where seven furnaces, dated to the Middle Nok phase, were excavated in a trench measuring only 22.5 sqm. Similar clustered concentrations of furnaces were discovered at other sites such as Janjala.

The dates obtained from the other sites confirmed the earlier estimates for the Taruga furnances, placing them in the mid-second millennium BC. The earliest dates range between ca 800 and 550 BC, suggesting that iron working began not later than the 6th century BC and not earlier than the 8th century BC. The dating of furnaces to Middle Nok provides more evidence for arguments in favour of an independent development of iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa.

(Early west African iron smelting pg 326-330, Nok Early Iron Production in Central Nigeria pg 290-300, A Chronology of the Central Nigerian Nok Culture pg 267, Nok: African Sculpture pg 54-58)

More than 65 iron objects were found at Taruga, mostly consisting of knife blades, arrows, axes, socketed tools, and iron points. The iron found was exceptionally clean and in many cases was found to be steel, similar to the high quality iron that was still being smelted in the region during the 20th century. However, the relatively low number of iron tools compared to polished stone tools indicates that the metal was likely to have been a prestige item more than a common tool.

(Early west African iron smelting pg 334-337)

A Nok furnace site during excavation (Baidesuru)

Nok furnace site at Janjala

Decline of the Nok culture and its significance in the emergence of later west African kingdoms.

The Nok tradition vanishes around the turn of the common era, possibly related to unfavorable environmental changes. This process must have been gradual, as the number of sites begins to decrease significantly as early as 400BC, even as some sites like Taruga continue to be settled. By the early centuries of the common era, neither Nok terracotta figurines nor Nok pottery are found at the settlement sites, indicating they have no connection with the Nok Culture sites.

Evidence from the site of Janruwa points to reducing crop yields of the pearl millet settlements on the slopes and valleys, compared to the new settlements in forested valleys that planted of oil-palm and used new pottery styles. Its however unclear if these new populations near the forest regions were different from the Nok people or emerged out of the breakdown of the Nok social order.

(The Palaeovegetation of Janruwa pg 329-350)

The Nok Culture occupies an important but little-known period in the "prehistoric" period of Africa. Some centuries after the disappearance of the Nok Culture, the first states and empires emerged in the south-western and south-eastern fringes at Oyo-ile, Ile-Ife, and Igbo Ukwu during the 8th-10th century. While there is no evidence to relate one development with the other directly, the agricultural economy of the Nok culture, their belief system and the sophisticated sculptural art may have provided precedent for the better known traditions of Igbo Ukwu and Ife.

Many west African societies appear to have shared a broadly similar art traditions that involved the use of sculptural art in expressions of belief systems and cultural identity. The use of terracota sculptures in religious and burial contexts, the use of zoomorphic motifs, the distinctive body proportions, the jewelery, the inclusion of deformities, are all part of a broadly similar art tradition that appears in later artworks of Igbo Ukwu, Ife and Benin.

(Between Nok, Ile-Ife and Benin, pg 82-86, Nok: African Sculpture pg 37)

However, unlike the other Neolithic cultures such as the Tichitt, Gajiganna, Nile-valley, and the pre-Aksumite cultures, the Nok culture shows little signs of social stratification, nucleated settlement or monumental architecture. The Nok Culture fits into the lesser understood patterns of social complexity first uncovered in the inner Niger delta and across parts of west Africa; where small-scale groups of semi-sedentary herder-farmers living in autonomous communities started to establish settlements, produce sculptures and smelt iron, without centralized control and well-defined social hierarchies.

These so-called 'Alternative polities' popularized by the archeologist Roderick MacIntosh at Jenne-Jeno, were capable of producing many remarkable accomplishments such as the tumuli and stone circles of the Senegambia, the invention and spread of iron, copper and gold metallurgy through trade, and the founding of cities. As for the Nok culture, the omnipresence of terracotta sculptures in all places, and their lack of differentiation in equipment points to a co-existance of ritual and settlement sites. There might have been rulers, chiefs or big men, possibly residing in 'palaces' and buried in graves that did not differ from the ordinary houses of common people and left no status markers.

(Sahel: Art and empires pg 48-54 An Outline of Recent Studies on the Nigerian Nok Culture pg 252-253)

The legacy of the Nok culture is therefore to be found in the so-called egalitarian political systems and social institutions which existed in west Africa alongside the more hierachical and centralized states that we are familiar with. Like the 'self-organizing' cities studied by Roderick McIntosh in the inner Niger delta, or the non-hierachical villages of Kirikongo (in the Kitampo Neolithic) studied by Stephen Dueppen, the Nok culture attests to the sheer diversity of early political developments in Africa.

Nok figures, possibly priests or deities

Male figure, kimberly art museum, Fragment of a Male Figure, yale university, Male figure, Boston museum

Find more images of Nok sculptures in private collections here

References:

Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context by Peter Breunig

Crossroads / Carrefour Sahel: Cultural and technological developments in first millennium BC/AD West Africa by Sonja Magnavita

Die archäologischen Fundkontexte von Terrakotten der Nok-Kultur Zentralnigerias by André Luiz Ruivo Ferreira Burmann

Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power, and Identity, ca. 1300 By Suzanne Preston Blier

Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara by Alisa LaGamma

Nok Early Iron Production in Central Nigeria by Henrik Junius

Early West African Iron Smelting: The Legacy of Taruga in Light of Recent Nok Research by Angela Fagg Rackham

El origen de las sociedades complejas en el África by Peter Breunig

Pits at Pangwari: Charcoal Taphonomy at a Multi-phased Nok Site by Alexa Höhn

The Nok Terracotta Sculptures of Pangwari by Tanja M. Männel

Outline of a New Research Project on the Nok Culture of Central Nigeria by Peter Breunig

The Palaeovegetation of Janruwa by Alexa Höhn

A Chronology of the Central Nigerian Nok Culture by Gabriele Franke

An outline of recent studies on the Nigerian Nok Culture by Peter Breunig

A question of rite—pearl millet consumption at Nok culture sites by Louis Champion

Archaeobotanical Studies at Nok sites by S. Kahlheber

Honey-collecting in prehistoric West Africa from 3500 years ago by Julie Dunn

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