Nok

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

Village in Kaduna, Nigeria

title: "Nok" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["jaba,-nigeria", "populated-places-in-kaduna-state", "sacred-sites-in-traditional-african-religions", "archaeological-sites-in-nigeria", "archaeological-sites-of-western-africa", "prehistoric-sites-in-nigeria"] description: "Village in Kaduna, Nigeria" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nok" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Village in Kaduna, Nigeria ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
name	Nok
settlement_type	Village, Archeological site
pushpin_map	Nigeria
coordinates
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Nigeria
subdivision_type1	State
subdivision_name1	Kaduna
::

::callout[type=note] a village in Nigeria ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Furnace_remains,_Nok_Village_2.jpg" caption="Furnace remains, Nok Village, Kaduna State"] ::

Archaeology

The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, of which these figurines are typical, which flourished in Nigeria in the period 1500 BC - 500 AD. The artifacts were discovered in 1943 during mining operations.{{cite web |url=http://www.hamillgallery.com/NOK/NokTerracottas/Nok.html |title=NOK TERRACOTTA HEADS, Nigeria |work=HAMILL GALLERY of TRIBAL ART |accessdate=2011-01-10}} The archaeologist Bernard Fagg investigated the site, and with the help of locals discovered many other artifacts.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0llBlzF6UgC&pg=PA108 |page=108 |chapter=Nok, Nigeria |title=Archaeologica: The World's Most Significant Sites and Cultural Treasures |author=Aedeen Cremin |publisher=frances lincoln ltd |year=2007 |ISBN=0-7112-2822-1}} Iron smelting furnaces were also found at Nok.

A sample of carbonized wood found in the "main paddock" at Nok in 1951 was dated to around 3660 BC which dates far before the first iron smelting, though there are questions about the reliability of this conclusion.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tTs9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA159 |page=159 |title=Stone-Age prehistory: studies in memory of Charles McBurney |author1=Charles Brian Montagu McBurney |author2=G. N. Bailey |author3=Paul Callow |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1986 |ISBN=0-521-25773-5}}

Nok is seen as peculiar due to the discovery of both stone and iron tools found in the archeological site but no copper tools. It is believed that Nok culture along with all of Sub-Saharan Africa skipped the copper age, suggesting that they made the leap from the Stone age to the Iron Age.

The reason for this is because the use of copper metallurgy has been dated to around 2000 BC and iron metallurgy at around 2136–1921 BC making the use of these metals predate many areas in the world which supports the independent expansion of this technology in Sub-Saharan Africa.

References

Breunig, Peter. 2014. Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context: p. 21.
Atwood, R. (2011). [https://research.ebsco.com/c/roqt37/viewer/html/dh66vgibhb?route=details&auth-callid=62d65638-1cf0-4387-a3c4-946461dafc8e The NOK of Nigeria]. ''Archaeology'', ''64''(4), 34–38
Miller, Duncan E., and Nikolaas J. Van Der Merwe. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231791625_Early_Metal_Working_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa_A_Review_of_Recent_Research “Early Metal Working in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of Recent Research.” ''The Journal of African History''] 35.1 (1994): 1–36. Web.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::