← Explore on the interactive map
Nok Culture
From roughly 1000 to 300 BCE, the Nok culture, characterized by distinctive terracotta sculptures, early iron smelting, and settled villages, appeare…
Timeline
- c. -1000–-900Nok region · NigeriaSettled agricultural villages appeared on the Jos Plateau, beginning to produce highly stylized human and animal terracotta figures, forming the Nok culture's signature artistic tradition.
- c. -800–-500Jos Plateau · NigeriaArchaeological evidence shows that Nok peoples possessed early iron-smelting technology, and the terracotta style and iron culture spread to other parts of West Africa, influencing subsequent regional cultural development.
- c. -400–-300Central Nigeria · NigeriaProduction of the Nok culture's characteristic terracotta figures gradually declined and settlement patterns changed, with the culture inherited and differentiated by later West African regional cultures.
Sources
- The Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context — Peter Breunig (2014)
- Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa — Joseph O. Vogel (1997)