c. 1500 BCE – the last centuries BCE

The Nok Culture

Farming communities in central Nigeria make some of Africa's oldest large terracotta sculptures and smelt iron.

Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context — Peter Breunig (ed.), Africa Magna Verlag (2014)
Potsherds in Time: The Pottery of the Nigerian Nok Culture and Its Chronology — Gabriele Franke, Goethe University Frankfurt (doctoral thesis) (2016)
A History of Nigeria — Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, Cambridge University Press (2008)

Debated by historians ancientartidentity

Named after the village of Nok in today’s Kaduna State, where tin miners found a terracotta head in the 1940s, the Nok culture produced striking clay figures with elaborate hairstyles and pierced, triangular eyes. Its people farmed and were among the earliest iron-smelters south of the Sahara.

A History of Nigeria — Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, Cambridge University Press (2008)
Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context — Peter Breunig (ed.), Africa Magna Verlag (2014)

Dates are debated: it was once placed around 500 BCE–200 CE, but research by a Goethe University Frankfurt team since 2006 traces Nok settlement back to the middle of the second millennium BCE, with the culture lasting into the last centuries BCE.

Potsherds in Time: The Pottery of the Nigerian Nok Culture and Its Chronology — Gabriele Franke, Goethe University Frankfurt (doctoral thesis) (2016)
Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context — Peter Breunig (ed.), Africa Magna Verlag (2014)

Many sites have been destroyed by looters supplying collectors.

Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context — Peter Breunig (ed.), Africa Magna Verlag (2014)

Why it matters today

Nigeria

Nok sculptures are a point of national pride and a reminder that Nigeria's story begins thousands of years before colonial rule. Their looting for the international art market is also a live grievance.