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Information about Nok

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Nok sculpture, terracotta, Louvre
The Nok civilization appeared in Nigeria around 500 B.C. and mysteriously vanished around 200 AD. The civilization’s social system was extremely advanced representing the end of the Neolithic age (Stone Age) and start of the Iron Age in Africa. The Nok civilization was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized Terracotta. Nok culture terracottas are heralded as the prime evidence of the refinement of African civilizations, and it is suggested that the society eventually evolved into the later Jos Plateau community. The refinement of this civilisation is attested to by the image of a Nok dignitary at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The dignitary is portrayed wearing a "shepherds crook" affixed with an elastic material to the right arm.[1] The dignitary is also portrayed sitting with flared nostrils, and an open mouth suggesting the deep inspiration and exhalation associated with meditation. According to some accounts, based on artistic similarities between early Yoruba art forms and Nok forms, there may be connections between Nok culture and contemporary Jos Plateau people. Later brass and terracotta sculptures of the Ife and Benin cultures show significant similarities with those found at Nok.

Iron age in Africa

Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in Nok civilization in Africa by 500 BC. [1]

Nok Civilization

The Nok sculptures depicting animals and humans as well. Their function is still unknown, since scientific field work is still missing. For the most part, the terracotta are preserved in the form of scattered fragments. That is why Nok art is well known today only for the heads, both male and female, whose hairstyles are particularly detailed and refined. The statues are in fragments because the discoveries are usually made from alluvial mud, in terrain made by the erosion of water. The terracotta statues found there are hidden, rolled, polished, and broken. Rarely are works of great size conserved intact making them highly valued on the international art market.

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Female Statue
48 cm tall
Age: 900 to 1,500 years

History of Rediscovery

The Nok civilization was rediscovered in 1928 on the Jos Plateau during tin mining. The first pieces were unearthed but then forgotten. In 1932, a group of 11 statues in perfect condition were discovered near the city of Sokoto. Since that time, statues coming from the city of Katsina were brought to light. Although there are similarities to the classical Nok style, the connection between them is not clear yet.

Later still, in 1943, near the village of Nok, in the center of Nigeria, a new series of clay figurines were discovered by accident while mining tin. A worker had found a head and had taken it back to his home for use as a scarecrow, a role that it filled (successfully) for a year in a yam field. It then drew the attention of the director of the mine who bought it. He brought it to the city of Jos and showed it to the trainee civil administrator, Bernard Fagg, an archaeologist who immediately understood its importance. He asked all of the miners to inform him of all of their discoveries and was able to amass more than 150 pieces. Afterwards, Bernard and Angela Fagg ordered systematic excavations that revealed many more profitable lucky finds dispersed over a vast area, much larger than the original site. In 1977, the number of terra cotta objects discovered in the course of the mining excavation amounted to 153 units, mostly from secondary deposits (the statuettes had been carted by floods near the valleys) situated in dried-up riverbeds in savannahs in Northern and Central Nigeria (the Southwestern portion of the Jos Plateau).

Later, new discoveries had been found in an increasingly larger area, including the Middle Niger Valley and the Lower Benue Valley.

Descendant of an Older Culture?

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Artisans who worked around the Nok used the same material they used for their utility pottery for their model figurines, a coarse grain clay.

Certain statues could reach 1.20 meters, suggesting an excellent control of modeling techniques such as cooking in open air. As many of the statues are hollow, the sculptors took care to maintain an equal thickness in all parts and hollowed out the parts that could have exploded when fired.

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Nok rider and horse
53 cm tall
Age: 1,400 to 2,000 years


This technical skill, like the stylistic control noted in these works, suggests that Nok art could have been the descendant of an already long artistic tradition. Nowhere does one detect experimentation. The characteristics of the style are already precise. The eye draws the attention by its importance. It is sometimes an arc and sometimes a triangle above which an eyebrow counterbalances the curve of the higher eyelid.

References

Most of this article was originally a translation of of in the French-language Wikipedia. Other references are:

Further reading

  • Breunig, P. & Rupp, N. (2006). Nichts als Kunst. Archäologische Forschungen zur früheisenzeitlichen Nok-Kultur in Zentral-Nigeria. Forschung Frankfurt 2-3, 73-76.
  • Boullier, C.; A. Person; J.-F. Saliège & J. Polet (2001). Bilan chronologique de la culture Nok et nouvelle datations sur des sculptures. Afrique: Archéologie & Arts 2, 9-28.
  • Fagg, A. (1972). A preliminary report on an occupation site in the Nok valley, Nigeria: Samun Dukiya, AF/70/1. West African Journal of Archaeology 2, 75-79.
  • Fagg, B. (1959). The Nok Culture in prehistory. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 1 (4), 288-293.
  • Fagg, B. (1968). The Nok Culture: Excavations at Taruga. The West African Archaeological Newsletter 10, 27-30.
  • Fagg, B. (1969). Recent work in West Africa: new light on the Nok Culture. World Archaeology 1 (1), 41-50.
  • Fagg, B., (1990): Nok terracottas. Lagos: National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
  • Jemkur, J. (1992). Aspects of the Nok Culture. Zaria.
  • Rupp, N.; Ameje, J.; Breunig, P. (2005). New studies on the Nok Culture of Central Nigeria. Journal of African Archaeology 3, 2: 283-290.
  • Shaw, T., (1981). The Nok sculptures of Nigeria. Scientific American 244(2): 154-166.
  • Tylecote, R. (1975a). The origin of iron smelting in Africa. Westafrican Journal of Archaeology. 5, 1-9.
  • Tylecote, R. (1975b). Iron smelting at Taruga, Nigeria. Journal of Historical Metallurgy 9 (2), 49-56.

Footnotes

1. ^ Duncan E. Miller and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Early Metal Working in Sub Saharan Africa' Journal of African History 35 (1994) 1-36; Minze Stuiver and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa' Current Anthropology 1968. Tylecote 1975 (see below)

See also

Norwegian krone
norsk krone (Norwegian)

1000 kroner 20 kroner
ISO 4217 Code NOK
User(s) Norway

Inflation 2.3%
Source [https://www.cia.
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Nokia Corporation

Public – Oyj
(, NYSE:  NOK , FWB: NOA3 )
Founded Nokia, Finland (1865)
Headquarters Espoo, Finland

Key people Fredrik Idestam, Founder in 1865
Kari Kairamo, CEO in the 1980s
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, President & CEO
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Nok terracotta figures are hollow, coil built, nearly life sized human heads and bodies that are depicted with highly stylized features, abundant jewellery, and varied postures.
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Nok Hockey is a game produced by Carrom Company that essentially combines the games of pool and hockey.

Rules

The object of the game is to knock the puck into the opponents goal. For the goal to count, the puck must go completely through the slot.
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Nok Kundi is a town in western Pakistan in the province of Balochistan.

Coordinates:
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DD ICAO
NOK Callsign
NOK AIR
Founded 2004
Hubs Don Mueang International Airport
Fleet size 8 (+2 orders)
Destinations 12
Parent company Nok Airlines Co., Ltd.
Headquarters Bangkok, Thailand
Key people Mr.
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NOK may refer to:
  • ISO 4217 code for Norwegian krone
  • NYSE stock ticker for Nokia Corporation, based in Finland
  • Nok, the ancient civilization from Nigeria or Nok terracotta figures
  • Nok Hockey, the game
  • Nok Kundi, town in Western Pakistan

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Neolithic[1] or "New" Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. The Neolithic era follows the terminal Holocene Epipalaeolithic
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Terra cotta (Italian: "baked earth") is a ceramic. Its uses include vessels, water & waste water pipes and surface embellishment in building construction. The term is also used to refer to items made out of this material and to its natural, brownish orange color.
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Alluvium (from the Latin, alluvius, from alluere, "to wash against") is soil or sediments deposited by a river or other running water. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand
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The Jos Plateau is aplateau located in Nigeria covering 7770 km². With an average altitude of 1280 metres, with its highest point at 2010 metres, it is the only region of temperate climate of Nigeria. The plateau has given name to the State (Plateau State) in which it is found.
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Sokoto is a city located in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, near to where the Sokoto River and Rima River meet. Sokoto is the modern day capital of Sokoto State (and its predecessor, the Northwestern State).
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Katsina is a city, formerly a city-state, in northern Nigeria, and is the capital of Katsina State.[1]

Geography

Katsina is located some 160 miles East of the city of Sokoto, and 84 miles Northwest of Kano, close to the border with Niger at approximately
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TIN may refer to:
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  • Tin
This article is about the metallic chemical element.

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scarecrow is a device, traditionally a human figure dressed in old clothes, or mannequin, that is used to discourage birds such as crows from disturbing crops.[1]
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Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae). These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania.
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Jos is a city in Nigeria's middle belt and is the administrative capital of Plateau State. It is located at , high on the Jos Plateau. During British colonial rule it became an important centre for tin mining.
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Bernard Evelyn Buller Fagg (December 8, 1915 - August 14, 1987) was a British archaeologist and Museum curator. He was born in Upper Norwood to William Percy Fagg, an antiquarian bookseller and his wife Lilian Fagg (née Buller). His brother was William Fagg.
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savanna or savannah is a tropical or subtropical woodland ecosystem. Savannas are characterised by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close.
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Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending over 2500 miles (about 4180 km). It runs in a crescent through Guinea, Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta of the Oil Rivers,
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