NOK CULTURE

Nok culture is a prehistorically culture which flourished in the central Nigerian area – a territory extending from the middle of the Jos Plateau western through Abuja to Kagara and southwards to Katsina Nla South of it Benue many discoveries where also made at Ankiring, Wamba, Tare and Jema. The area in which these discoveries have so far been found has already spread to an area of 300 miles by 100 miles lying across the Niger and Benue valley of the ham Jaba culture group at which many of the terracuttas have been discovered. The area has also yielded not only terracuttas and evidence of early iron working but also stone tools of the achulian tradition. These terracottas were initially discovered by European Tin – miners within and around the Tin miming Zone in 1928 from alluvial deposits at a depth of 7n or more. These discoveries help to add a new dimension to Nigeria, African and indeed the world cultural heritage. The Nok people appears likely to have enjoyed an economy and way of life nearly as advance as that of the present inhabitant although at first, it was not clear whether the Nok Terracuttas belong to the Neolithic age or Iron Age. Things become clearer after systematic excavation were carried out at data-able sites such as Nok and Turaga site at which the close and clear terracottas and iron working were demonstrated.
Data from direct Archaeological excavation and move recently from thermohuminiscence have generally been accepted to place the beginning of the Nok culture to at least the fifth 5th millennium (BC) to the 9th millennium BC. For a long time an upper limit data of 200 AD was the only one available. Recently T.L Dates are now available at some Nok Terracuttas which show that, they were still being produced after 600AD. Thus, the Nok Terracuttas were produced over a period of 1100 years (500BC – 600AD) and as long as 1500 years (300BC – 700AD)
One unique feature of the Terracuttas work is that they represent the earliest coherent and articulate tradition of sculpture of a naturalistic system in Black Africa. They help to provide the baseline on which to study subsequent artistic traditions, schools and movements in this region of Africa.
From the foregoing, it is obvious that the great school of Ile-Ife, Benin, Owo, Igbo – ukwu and indeed the prodigious output in wood, stone, ivory, metal and clay of the indigenous civilization of Nigeria can be seen to have an indigenous and ancestry, the Nok Terracuttas being a legitimate and credible prototype.
These Terracuttas have help to add a vital dimension to the study of the history of technology and Africa beliefs systems as they present evidence of an awareness of the landscape and its contents including animals such as elephant, the snake, the monkey and possibly cattle. They depict evidence of technology of production by showing working tools such as the axe or hoe. Elements of basic aesthetics as in bracelets, anklets, and possibly ear and lip – plugs that indicate a society of cultured citizens, a society that was not self – sufficient but produced the surplus that made the pursuit of artistic creativity possible. And the presentation of man is the central subject of its concern as most of their creativity is in human form.The culture also allows us to have a glimpse at instance of disease and bodily deformities as they allow us to see the meticulous attention paid to hair – styles of which some have survived into the twenty century.