Rediscovering the Lost Legacy

It is no news that Nigeria is as old as any other civilization in history. There was the popularly known Oyo Empire as well as the Benin Empire, both of which still exist in the present day. In Africa, there was the Ancient Egypt that emerged from 3100 BC until 30 BCE, the Carthaginian civilization in the 9th century, the Kushites from 1070 BCE till 350 CE, the Akusumite Empire from 1 CE till 7 CE, the Kingdom of Ghana from the 6th century, and so on. There is, however, a civilization that has been lost to history because of inaccessibility to the research ground. This civilization is known as the Nok Culture and existed in present-day Nigeria between roughly 500 BCE and 200 CE. Due to Nigeria's reputation for disorder, corruption, and expensive visas, archaeologists have stayed away, and the rate of study has been significantly delayed. Archaeologists move a teaspoon of earth on the Niger for every ton they move on the Nile, according to anthropologist George Murdock's 1959 observation.

According to a National Geographic article, in 1943, a traveler to Nigeria brought archaeologist Bernard Fagg several unusual-looking artifacts, which Fagg and his colleagues later discovered belonged to a then-unknown society now known as the Nok. Terracotta sculptures of human heads, human figures, and animals predominate among these items. The triangular or oval-shaped eyes on human faces are one of the defining features of Nok sculptures. Human figures also frequently have ornate hairdos. Usually, when humans are portrayed, they are seated with their hands resting on their knees. One of the earliest societies in Western Africa was the Nok civilization. It existed in present-day Nigeria between roughly 500 BCE and 200 CE. The Nok employed iron tools and grew crops. Due to the fact that artifacts were originally found close to the present-day Nigerian town of Nok, historians and archaeologists refer to this culture as the Nok culture. The Nok civilization is an ancient culture that existed in what is now Nigeria, West Africa.

Fagg had identified some of the major indicators of an advanced civilization: polished art and organized worship, metal smelting, and a population large enough to support these activities. But he was well aware that such a society did not exist in isolation. Fagg, who is now back at Oxford University in England, wrote that Nok culture had very probably started earlier and lasted longer than he had evidence for at the time. "It was the product of a mature tradition," he said, "possibly with a long antecedent history, of which no trace has yet been found." After 40 years of little archaeological study in the area, scientists are now returning to the scrubby, mountainous lands where Fagg worked and discovering that the Nok did, in fact, thrive for a longer period of time. They may have been West Africa's first complex civilization, existing from at least 900 B.C. until around A.D. 200. Their terracottas have become among Africa's most recognizable ancient items. And they may be the first civilization south of the Sahara to smelt iron, though at least a half-dozen rivals have emerged since Fagg initially excavated a Nok furnace.

Rupp agrees, "When you look at a piece like this," she says, referring to the just-discovered arm, "you can see that the Nok were experts at making terracotta. There was a specialized, creative class." There may have been a kind of terracotta "guild," which, if true, would suggest the Nok had a well-developed class hierarchy, she adds. Breunig and Rupp have found about 20 iron implements, including fearsome spear points, bracelets, and small knives, most of which are fairly crude-looking. How and when Africans developed iron is important because metallurgy is considered a crucial marker in the shift to complex societies. Manufacturing metal means better tools for farming, hunting, and preparing food, as well as better weapons for waging war and gaining resources. Yet whether metalworking creates the conditions for civilization to flourish or vice versa remains an open question for archaeologists.

The Nok culture is known for its distinctive terracotta figurines and artifacts, which were first discovered in the early 20th century through archaeological excavations. According to Breunig and Rupp (2016), "Their origin is unknown, but since the plants they used as crops (especially millet) are indigenous to the Sahel region, a northern homeland is more probable than any other. The Nok culture's inhabitants must have traveled from somewhere else. Though we suspect the Sahel zone in West Africa, we have not yet determined which region it is. They might have originated in the Central Sahara, according to Champion et al. (2022), who also claimed: After 2500 BCE, in the context of southerly population movements, the cultivation of pearl millet spread from the drying West and Central Sahara into the West African savanna zone (Ozainne 2014). The distinctive terracotta sculptures and early ironwork of Nok civilization are well known. Due to the secrecy surrounding the Nok people's identities and origins, it is challenging to ascertain their legacy.

The Early Nok Period pottery, dating from around 1500–900 BC, is characterized by small, poorly preserved pottery with intricate patterns below the rims. The lines are fine or curving, with many close-together and crisscrossing lines beneath the rim. The Middle Nok Period, from 900–300 BC, saw a significant increase in sites, terracotta fragments, and iron objects. Instead of covering most of the pot, the pottery featured a decorative band bordered by horizontal lines, with some bands featuring sharp ends, impressed zigzag lines, or incised waves or arcs. Middle Nok ceramics had more variety in rim sizes and types, with everted rims, open bowls, inverted rims, and incised line ornaments on the rims' lips. The Late Nok period, from 300–1 BC, has fewer known sites but shows a decrease in the strictness of the ornamental band, more complex decoration, and a returning pattern of body decoration.

Some experts think that the Nok's artistic talent impacted the exquisite metalwork produced subsequently by the Ife people, who resided in the region of Nigeria. The Ife people produced intricate and realistic metal sculptures of human heads between the 11th and 15th centuries C.E. It is not yet known, though, if Nok metalworking and art had an impact on later Ife-like communities in Africa. The majority of information about Nok culture, society, and social structure is still unknown, save for what we may deduce from their clay artwork. Nok archaeological sites in Nigeria's central region are determined to be settlement sites based on archaeological evidence discovered at the surface level of the sites and to be Nok culture based on the type of archaeological evidence discovered, specifically Nok terracotta remnants and Nok pottery. The majority of Nok village sites are situated on mountaintops. The border of a cellar of a settlement wall was carved from a granite foundation at the Kochio settlement site. A megalithic stone fence was also built around the confined town site of Kochio. In Puntun Dutse, a round stone foundation for a dwelling was also uncovered.

Since the 1970s, Nok terracotta figures have been heavily looted, with two main traders using 1,000 diggers daily to unearth them. This has led to hundreds of Nok Culture sites being illegally dug for these sculptures, causing valuable information about the Nok Culture to be lost. In 1979, Nigeria's National Commission of Museums and Monuments established the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) to manage Nigeria's cultural heritage. The NCMM recommended strict enforcement of antiquities laws, monitoring of archaeological sites, and aggressive public enlightenment campaigns. However, the Nigerian government did not have the resources to implement all recommendations, leading to terracotta figures still being smuggled through Nigeria's borders. A joint research project with Goethe University and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments found that over 90% of Nok Culture sites have been illegally looted. Art historical studies show that over 1,000 Nok terracotta sculptures have been illegally excavated and smuggled into Europe, the USA, Japan, and other countries. The problem is further complicated by the presence of fake Nok sculpture workshops that sell them as authentic.

The Nok society's end is unclear, as it declined after A.D. 200, possibly due to overexploitation of natural resources and reliance on charcoal. Nok's legacy to later cultures is even more puzzling, as art historians have long seen it as an isolated phenomenon. Later civilizations in southern Nigeria had advanced metalworking skills and a tradition of naturalistic portraiture, and art historians are now looking closer at what they might owe to Nok. Ife, the most celebrated of these later cultures, turned bronze into stunning portrait heads around A.D. 1300. Musa Hambolu, research director at Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Abuja, says more research is needed to establish a stylistic continuum between Nok and Ife. Bernard Fagg battled with the topic of where Nok culture came from and where it went. He talked about the "striking similarities of style and subject matter" between Nok and Ife, but admitted there was no evidence the Ife people had ever seen Nok terracottas. Breunig is now attempting to solve the puzzle. "Within 1,000 years, West Africa progressed from sedentary farming complexes like Nok to great empires like Ife and Benin," he argues. "No society exists in a vacuum of time. That is a story we are beginning to tell."