Nok (culture)

(Redirig depuis Nok (civilisation))

Pour les articles homonymes, voir Nok.

Culture de Nok

Figure fminine
48 cm
900 1 500 ans.

Dfinition
Lieu ponyme

Nok

Caractristiques
Rpartition gographique

Nigeria, Plateau de Jos

Priode

Nolithique africain (Later Stone Age), premier ge du fer

Chronologie

env. 1000 av. J.-C. -env. 300 ap. J.-C.

Tendance climatique

Tempr

Principaux sites :
Samun Dukiya, Taruga, Katsina Ala, Kagara, Sokoto

Objets typiques
Ttes en terre cuite
modifier

Taruga
Samun Dukiya
Katsina Ala
Kagara
Nok
Sokoto

Carte du Nigeria montrant les principaux sites de la culture Nok.

La culture de Nok apparat dans le Nord du Nigria vers 1000 av. J.-C. et disparat brusquement,
pour des raisons inconnues, aux alentours de 300 ap. J.-C. On pense qu'elle est l'hritire d'une
nation ancestrale qui se serait ramifie pour donner naissance aux
peuples Haoussa, Gbagyi, Birom, Kanouri, Nupe et Jukun. La culture Kwatarkwashi ou culture de

Sokoto, localise au nord-ouest de Nok, est suppose tre identique ou tre l'anctre de la culture
de Nok.
Le systme social de la culture de Nok semble avoir t hautement avanc 2. Elle est considre
comme la plus ancienne productrice de sculptures en terre cuite proche de la taille relle. On trouve
des sculptures reprsentant des cavaliers cheval, ce qui indique que la culture de Nok connaissait
cet animal3, peut-tre arriv d'Afrique du Nord.
Le travail du fer, fonte et forgeage, apparat dans la culture Nok vers 550 av. J.-C., mais il est
possible qu'il soit encore plus ancien. Christopher Ehret (en) a suggr que la fonte du fer a t
pratique dans la rgion ds avant1000 av. J.-C.4,5
Sommaire
[masquer]

1Dcouverte

2Sculptures
2.1Trafic illgal

3Notes et rfrences
o

3.1Textes originaux

3.2Rfrences

3.3Bibliographie

3.3.1Webographie

3.4Crdits d'auteur

3.5Liens externes

Dcouverte[modifier | modifier le code]

La culture de Nok fut dcouverte par les Europens en 1928, sur le plateau de Jos, l'occasion de
travaux pour une mine d'tain situe en terrain alluvial6. Le lieutenant-colonel John Dent-Young,
un Anglais, conduisait les oprations minires dans le village nigrian de Nok lorsqu'un des mineurs
trouva, 7 mtres sous le niveau du sol, une tte de singe ralise en terre cuite. D'autres
trouvrent des ttes humaines ainsi qu'un pied, toujours dans le mme matriau. Le colonel, un peu
plus tard, dposa ces objets dans un muse de Jos7. En 1932, un groupe de onze statues en parfait
tat fut dcouvert prs de la ville de Sokoto. D'autres statues, provenant deKatsina Ala furent
ensuite mises au jour. Quoiqu'elles soient trs similaires celles de Nok, la relation entre les deux
sites nest pas encore clairement tablie.

Sokoto est une ville du Nigeria situe sur un promontoire rocheux la confluence du Bakoura et
du Rima-Maradi formant le Goulbi n'Sokoto ou rivire de Sokoto.

Sa population est estime en 2006 455 000 habitants.

Sokoto tait la capitale de lancien Empire de Sokoto annex par la suite par les Anglais en 1903.
La ville, sige de l'ancien Califat de Sokoto, est forte majorit musulmane. Sokoto est devenue
un important centre de formation musulman. Le sultan de Sokoto est considr comme le chef
spirituel des musulmans du nord du pays.

Encore plus tard, en 1943, prs du village de Nok, une nouvelle srie de figurines fut dcouverte par
accident l'occasion d'oprations minires. Un ouvrier avait trouv une tte humaine en terre cuite
qu'il avait ramene chez lui afin qu'elle serve d'pouvantail dans son champ d'ignames. Elle tint ce
rle pendant un an. Elle finit par attirer lattention du directeur, qui l'acheta. Il apporta la tte Jos et
la montra l'administrateur civil stagiaire Bernard Fagg (en), qui en compris immdiatement
l'importance. Il demanda tous les mineurs de l'informer de leurs dcouvertes et fut ainsi en mesure
d'accumuler plus de cent cinquante pices. Aprs cela, Bernard et Angela Fagg ordonnrent des
fouilles systmatiques qui rvlrent des trouvailles disperses dans une zone beaucoup plus
grande que le site originel. En 1977, le nombre de terres cuites dcouvertes se montait cent
cinquante-trois, principalement issues de dpts secondaires : les statuettes avaient t charries
par les inondations et retrouves dans les lits asschs des rivires de savane au nord et au centre
du Nigeria, dans la partie sud du plateau de Jos. Les terres cuites avaient donc t exposes
l'rosion et disperses diverses profondeurs, ce qui rend difficile leur classement et leur datation.
Deux sites archologiques, Samun Dukiya et Taruga, furent dcouverts, contenant des pices qui
taient restes en place. Les datations au radiocarbone et par thermoluminescence donnrent des
ges entre 2 000 et 2 500 ans avant lre commune (env. 500 av. J.-C.), ce qui fait d'elles quelques
unes parmi les plus anciennes en Afrique de l'Ouest. Beaucoup d'autres dates ont t obtenues
depuis, grce de nouvelles fouilles, permettant de faire remonter les dbuts de la culture Nok
encore plus loin dans le temps8.
Du fait de la similarit entre les sites, l'archologue Graham Connah croit que les uvres de Nok
forment un style qui a t adopt par une large palette de socits agricoles, utilisatrices du fer,
reprsentant des cultures varies, plutt que d'tre le marqueur d'un groupe humain particulier
comme cela a t souvent affirmtrad 2,9.
Devenu archologue, Bernard Fagg, quant lui, dans ses tudes concernant la culture de Nok,
identifie cette dernire avec les groupes humains du centre du Nigeria, notamment ceux
appartenant au groupe ethnique Ham (Jaba)10, rsidant essentiellement au sud de l'tat de Kaduna.
Fagg fonde sa dmonstration sur la similarit entre les pratiques culturelles modernes de ces
peuples et les personnages reprsents dans l'art Nok.
L'aire de la culture Nok s'tend du nord au sud sur environ 272 kilomtres et, d'est en ouest, sur 240
kilomtres. Une vingtaine de sites ont, ce jour, rvl des vestiges 11.

Sculptures[modifier | modifier le code]

La fonction des sculptures est toujours inconnue, mais un travail scientifique systmatique a
commenc en 2005 sur les sites afin de situer et comprendre ces sculptures dans leur contexte
archologique12,13,14.
La majeure partie des terres cuites se retrouvent sous la forme de fragments pars. C'est pourquoi
l'art Nok est essentiellement connu pour ses ttes, d'hommes et de femmes, dont les coiffures sont
particulirement dtailles et raffines. Les statues sont brises car elles sont habituellement

trouves dans des boues alluviales sur des terrains faonns par l'rosion de leau. Les statues qui
s'y trouvent sont caches et ont t roules, polies et brises. Les pices de grande taille intactes
sont rares, ce qui leur confre une grande valeur sur le march international de l'art.
Les terres cuites sont creuses, fabriques avec des boudins ; elles sont proches de la taille des
ttes humaines et les corps sont reprsents de manire stylise, orns de nombreux bijoux et dans
diffrentes postures.
On sait peu de choses sur la fonction de ces objets, mais les thories voquent la reprsentation
des anctres, des pierres tombales et des amulettes, destines viter les mauvaises rcoltes,
l'infertilit et les maladies. On pense aussi, s'appuyant sur le fait que plusieurs pices sont en forme
de dme, qu'elles ont pu servir de toits d'anciennes structures.
Margaret Young-Sanchez, du Cleveland Museum of Art, explique que la plupart des cramiques Nok
ont t faonnes la main en utilisant de l'argile grain grossier et en utilisant un type de sculpture
consistant ter de la matire, la manire de la sculpture sur bois. Aprs schage, les sculptures
taient recouverte d'une patine et polies afin d'obtenir une surface lisse et brillante. Les objets sont
creux, avec plusieurs ouvertures qui facilitent le schage et la cuisson. Le processus de cuisson
ressemblait celui qui est actuellement utilis au Nigeria, dans lequel les pices cuire sont
recouvertes d'herbe, de brindilles et de feuilles et mises chauffer durant plusieurs heures.

Trafic illgal[modifier | modifier le code]

Les sculptures nok font l'objet d'un trafic illgal au moins depuis les annes 1960, et figurent sur la
liste rouge des objets archologiques africains publie par leConseil international des
muses en 200015 ; des faux sont galement raliss16. Des sculptures ont t interceptes ces
dernires annes par les douanes franaises (2008) et amricaines (2010) et restitues au Nigria.
En fvrier 2013, le journal Daily Trust rapporte que le ministre du tourisme nigrian est entr en
possession de cinq statuettes Nok, voles par un Franais en aot 2010. Les objets avaient t
saisis par la douane franaise et ont t rapatris selon les directives du gouvernement nigrian.
Les experts estiment que ces sculptures sont vieilles de 2 700 3 400 ans17.

Homme, Muse du quai Branly18.

Homme, Louvre.

Sculpture composite, Muse du Louvre.

Notes et rfrences[modifier | modifier le code]

Textes originaux[modifier | modifier le code]
1. (en) It is inconceivable that the superb terracotas of the Nok culture were produced in large quantities
from a backward community.
2. (en) Nok artwork represents a style that was adopted by a range of iron-using farming societies of
varying cultures, rather than being the diagnostic feature of a particular human group as has often been
claimed.

Rfrences[modifier | modifier le code]

1. Rupp, Ameje et Breunig 2005, p. 289.
2. Il est inconcevable que les superbes terres cuites de la culture Nok aient t produites en grande
quantit par une culture arriretrad 1,1.
3. De nouveaux types de caprins et de bovins, ainsi qu'ventuellement le cheval, apparaissent ensuite
en Afrique de l'Ouest entre le milieu du I millnaire av. J.-C. et le dbut du Iermillnaire de notre re [...] qui
serait galement associe l'arrive de population saharienne. in Sylvain Ozainne, Un nolithique ouestafricain: cadre chrono-culturel, conomique et environnemental de l'Holocne rcent en Pays dogon, Mali,
Africa Magna Verlag, 2013, 304 p. (prsentation en ligne [archive]), p. 172.
er

4. (en) Minze Stuiver et Nicolaas J. van der Merwe, Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in SubSaharan Africa , Current Anthropology, no 1, fvrier 1968, p. 54-58 (lire en ligne [archive])
5. (en) Duncan E. Miller et Nikolaas J. Van Der Merwe, Early Metal Working in Sub-Saharan Africa: A
Review of Recent Research , The Journal of African History, vol. 35, no 1, mars 1994,p. 136 (DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0021853700025949)
6. (en) G. Chesi et G. Merzeder, The Nok Culture: Art in Nigeria 2500 Years Ago, Prestel
Publishing, 2007 (ISBN 978-3791336466)
7. (en) Primitive peoples do not produce artwork of anything like this quality , 2006 (consult le 4 avril
2016).
8. Breunig 2014.
9. (en) Graham Connah, Forgotten Africa: An Introduction to Its Archaeology, Routledge, 2004 (lire en
ligne [archive]), p. 120

10. Ce peuple s'appelle lui-mme Ham, sa langue est le Hyam, mais il est appel Jaba par les Haoussas.
11. Encyclopdia Universalis.
12. Breunig 2014, p. 22.
13. Breunig 2013.
14. (en) Peter Breunig, Stefanie Kahlheber et Nicole Rupp, Exploring the Nok
enigma , Antiquity, vol. 82, no 316, juin 2008 (lire en ligne).
15. Liste Rouge des objets archologiques africains [archive], icon.museum.
16. (en) Nok Terracottas [archive] sur traffickingculture.org.
17. (en) Mustapha Suleiman, France Hands Over Stolen Nigerian Artifacts [archive], Daily Trust, 3 fvrier
2013 (consult le 4 avril 2016).
18. Description de l'uvre sur le site du muse [archive] (consult le 7 janvier 2016)

Bibliographie[modifier | modifier le code]

(en) A. Fagg, The Nok Culture in prehistory , Journal of the Historical Society of
Nigeria, vol. 1, no 4, 1959, p. 288-293.

(en) A. Fagg, The Nok Culture: Excavations at Taruga , The West African
Archaeological Newsletter, no 10, 1968, p. 27-30.

(en) A. Fagg, Recent work in West Africa: new light on the Nok Culture , World
Archaeology, vol. 1, no 1, 1969, p. 41-50.

(en) A. Fagg, A preliminary report on an occupation site in the Nok valley, Nigeria:
Samun Dukiya, AF/70/1 , West African Journal of Archaeology, no 2, 1972,p. 75-79.

(en) R. Tylecote, The origin of iron smelting in Africa , Westafrican Journal of

Archaeology, no 5, 1975a, p. 1-9.

(en) R. Tylecote, Iron smelting at Taruga, Nigeria , Journal of Historical Metallurgy, no 2,

1975b, p. 49-56.

(en) T. Shaw, The Nok sculptures of Nigeria , Scientific

American, vol. 244, no 2, 1er fvrier 1981, p. 154-166 (lire en ligne)

(en) J. O. Ayoade, Introduction To Climatology For The Tropics, John Wiley & Sons
ltd, 1983 (ISBN 0-471-10407-8).

(en) A. Fagg, Nok terracottas, Londres, Lagos, Ethnographica - National Commission for
Museums and Monuments, 1990 (ISBN 9780905788982, prsentation en ligne).

(en) J. Jemkur, Aspects of the Nok Culture, Zaria, 1992.

Bernard de Grunne, Naissance de l'art en Afrique noire : la statuaire Nok au Nigeria, Paris,
A. Biro, 1998, 121 p. (ISBN 2-919880-17-9).

(en) Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, Nok Terracottas (500 B.C.
200 A.D.), New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 (lire en ligne).

Claire Boullier, Recherches mthodologiques sur la sculpture en terre cuite africaine :

application un corpus de sculptures archologiques en contexte et hors contexte de la
culture Nok (Nigeria) (thse de doctorat d'Art et archologie), Paris, Universit PanthonSorbonne, 2001, 640 p. 2 vol.

C. Boullier, A. Person, J.-F. Salige et J. Polet, Bilan chronologique de la culture Nok et

nouvelle datations sur des sculptures , Afrique, Archologie & Arts, no 2,2002, p. 9-28.

(en) N. Rupp, J. Ameje et P. Breunig, New studies on the Nok Culture of Central
Nigeria , Journal of African Archaeology, vol. 3, no 2, 2005, p. 283-290 (prsentation en ligne).

(de) P. Breunig et N. Rupp, Nichts als Kunst. Archologische Forschungen zur

frheisenzeitlichen Nok-Kultur in Zentral-Nigeria , Forschung Frankfurt, no 2-3,2006, p. 73-76.

(en) Veerle Linseele, Archaeofaunal Remains from the Past 4000 Years in Sahelian West
Africa: Domestic livestock, Subsistence Stratgies and Environmental Changes, Oxford,
Achaeopress, 2007, 340 p. (prsentation en ligne).

(en) R. Atwood, The Nok of Nigeria , Archaeology, juillet-aot 2011, p. 34-38 (lire en ligne).

(en) A. O. Olubunmi, The Rise and Fall of The Yoruba Race, The 199 Publishing
Palace, 2007 (ISBN 978-2457-38-8).

(en) A. O. Olubunmi, On Ijesa Racial Purity, The 199 Publishing Palace, 2009 (ISBN 978-245817-1).

(de) P. Breunig (d.), Nok: Ein Ursprung afrikanischer Skulptur, Francfort, Africa Magna
Verlag, 2013 (ISBN 9783937248387, prsentation en ligne).

(en) P. Breunig (d.), Nok African Sculpture in Archaeological Context, Francfort, Africa
Magna Verlag, 2014 (ISBN 978-3-937248-46-2, prsentation en ligne).

Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Histoire des villes d'Afrique Noire: Des origines la

colonisation, Albin Michel, 2014 (1re d. 1993), 416 p. (prsentation en ligne)

Webographie[modifier | modifier le code]

Laurence Garenne-Marot, Invention de la culture Nok (repres chronologiques) ,

dans Encyclopdia Universalis en ligne (lire en ligne)

Crdits d'auteur[modifier | modifier le code]

(en) Cet article est partiellement ou en totalit issu de larticle de Wikipdia

en anglais intitul Nok culture (voir la liste des auteurs).

Liens externes[modifier | modifier le code]

(es) Arte africano: terratocas , sur fundacionjimenezarellano.com (consult le 4 avril 2016)

Sur les autres projets Wikimedia :

Nok (culture), sur Wikimedia Commons

[masquer]
vm

Histoire du Nigeria

Culture de Nok (1000 av. J.-C. - 300 ) Protectorat du Nigeria du Sud et du Nord (1900 1914) Colonie et Protectorat du Nigeria (19
Biafra (1967 1970) Deuxime rpublique (1979 1983) Troisime rpublique (1993 1999) Quatrim

Plateau de Jos
Un article de Wikipdia, l'encyclopdie libre.
Aller : navigation, rechercher
9 34 00 N 9 05 00 E9.56666, 9.08333

Cet article est une bauche concernant le Nigeria et la montagne.

Vous pouvez partager vos connaissances en lamliorant (comment?) selon les recommandations des
projets correspondants.

Plateau de Jos

Carte topographique du Nigeria montrant le

plateau de Jos dans le centre du pays.
Gographie
Altitude

1 829 m, Collines de Shere

Superficie

7 770 km2
Administration

Pays
tats

Nigeria
Plateau, Kaduna, Bauchi
Gologie

Roches

Granites et roches volcaniques

modifier

Le plateau de Jos (appel auparavant plateau de Bauchi) est une rgion de plateaux couvrant
7 770 km2, situe une altitude moyenne de 1 280 mtres et culminant 1 829 mtres aux
collines de Shere (en), ce qui en fait la seule rgion au climat tempr du Nigeria. Le plateau
de Jos a donn son nom l'tat de Plateau o elle se trouve.

Histoire[modifier | modifier le code]

Au XIXe sicle le plateau de Jos tait un refuge pour les populations voulant chapper au jihad
men par les musulmans peuls, comme Usman dan Fodio dans le nord de Nigeria. Les
populations du plateau sont trs diverses : une soixantaine de groupes ethno-linguistiques ont pu
tre identifis, les plus nombreux tant les Berom, dans la partie nord du plateau.

En 1929, la culture du peuple Nok est redcouverte l'occasion de recherches de gisements

miniers sur le plateau de Jos.
Aprs la colonisation britannique la rgion devient, grce son climat, la destination touristique
principale des trangers rsidents au Nigeria. Mais les heurts violents ayant opposs des
populations sdentaires et nomades (Fulani) et les meutes urbaines opposant musulmans et
chrtiens au dbut du XXIe sicle ont fait chuter l'activit touristique.

Gologie[modifier | modifier le code]

Le plateau de Jos est granitique avec certaines lvations d'origine volcaniques et recle de
grandes quantits d'tain, qui ont t exploites au cours du XXe sicle. Des rivires importantes
(Kaduna, Gongola, Hadejia et Yobe) prennent leur source cet endroit.

Jos
Un article de Wikipdia, l'encyclopdie libre.
Aller : navigation, rechercher
Pour les articles homonymes, voir Jos (homonymie).

Cet article est une bauche concernant le Nigeria.

Vous pouvez partager vos connaissances en lamliorant (comment?) selon les recommandations des
projets correspondants.

Jos

Vue satellitaire (Nasa World Wind).

Administration
Pays
tat

Nigeria
Plateau
Dmographie

Populatio
n

873 943 hab.

(2010)

Gographie

Coordonn
es

Altitude

9 56 N 8 53 E/
9.9333333333333,
8.88333333333339 56 Nord 8
53 Est/9.9333333333333,
8.8833333333333
1 295 m
Golocalisation sur la carte : Nigeria

Golocalisation sur la carte : Nigeria

modifier

Jos est la capitale de l'tat de Plateau, au centre du Nigeria. Situe sur le plateau de Jos prs de
1 300 mtres d'altitude, elle jouit d'un climat plus tempr que le reste du pays avec des
tempratures moyennes comprises entre 21 et 25.
Sommaire

1 Histoire

2 Voir aussi

3 Notes et rfrences

4 Liens externes

Histoire[modifier | modifier le code]

La ville est cre au dbut du XXe sicle par les colons britanniques l'emplacement d'un village
nomm Geash pour exploiter l'tain dcouvert dans la rgion. La ville se dveloppe rapidement
partir de 1914 avec l'arrive du chemin de fer. Elle devient alors une destination touristique
privilgie pour les expatris rsidents au Nigeria en raison de son climat. Mais, au dbut
XXIe sicle, des heurts violents opposent musulmans du nord et chrtiens du sud qui font des
milliers de morts. En 2004, le gouverneur de l'tat de Plateau Joshua Dariye est suspendu six
mois pour ne pas avoir su contenir la violence. Du 17 au 20 janvier 2010, des affrontements
inter-confessionnels qui ncessitent l'intervention de l'arme font au moins 465 morts (environ
400 musulmans et 65 chrtiens) et un millier de blesss, la Croix-Rouge estime que 17 000

personnes ont t dplaces[1]. Le dimanche 7 mars 2010, ont lieu de nouvelles violences entre
Peuls musulmans et Birom chrtiens qui ont fait plus de 100 morts majorit chrtienne.
Voir aussi[modifier | modifier le code]

Liste des vques et archevques de Jos

Liste de massacres

Notes et rfrences[modifier | modifier le code]

1. http://www.20min.ch/ro/news/monde/story/23937750

Liens externes[modifier | modifier le code]

Katsina Ala est une zone de gouvernement local (Local Government Area ou LGA) du Nigeria,
dans l'tat de Benue ; sa capitale est la ville ponyme.
Elle abrite un site archologique important o d'importants objets de la culture Nok ont t mis
au jour.
Aire urbaine[modifier | modifier le code]

La ville de Katisna Ala abrite l'une des plus anciennes cole du pays, le Government College
Katsina-Ala, cr en 1914, qui a form de nombreux membres minents de la socit nigrianne.
La ville est situe au bord de la rivire Katsina, un affluent de la Bnou. Elle est
majoritairement peuple par des reprsentants du peuple Tiv[1].
Site archologique[modifier | modifier le code]

Des statues en terre cuite ont t trouves Katsina Ala au milieu du XXe sicle. Cela comprend
des ttes humaines ralistes, quelques animaux et des parties de statues plus importantes. Ces
objets sont similaires ceux trouvs Nok, environ 209 km au nord ; on pense qu'ils ont t
confectionns par un peuple appartenant la mme culture que celle de Nok[2]. Les figures
humaines reprsentent probablement des anctres ou des esprits. Selon Bernard Fagg, un
archologue qui a men des tudes approfondies sur la culture Nok, les objets de Katsina Ala
sont reprsentatifs d'un sous-style distinct[3]. Les statues de Taruga et de Samun Dukiya sont
similaires et prsentent, elles aussi, des particularits stylisques distinctives[4].

Le travail du fer commence sur le site vers le IVe sicle av. J.-C., un peu plus tard que sur celui de
Taruga[5]. Des billes d'tain ont aussi t trouves, certaines pouvant tre des imitations de
cauris[6].
Notes et rfrences[modifier | modifier le code]

(en) Cet article est partiellement ou en totalit issu de larticle de Wikipdia

en anglais intitul Katsina-Ala (voir la liste des auteurs).

1. (en) Thurstan Shaw, The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns,
Routledge, 1995 (ISBN 0-415-11585-X, lire en ligne), p. 275
2. (en) James R. Penn, Rivers of the world: a social, geographical, and
environmental sourcebook, ABC-CLIO, 2001 (ISBN 1-57607-042-5, lire en ligne), p. 26
3. (en) Hope B. Werness, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Native Art: Worldview,
Symbolism, and Culture in Africa, Oceania, and North America, Continuum
International Publishing Group, 2003 (ISBN 0-8264-1465-6, lire en ligne), p. 223
4. (en) G. Mokhtar, Ancient civilizations of Africa, University of California Press, 1981
(ISBN 0-435-94805-9, lire en ligne), p. 611
5. (en) Elizabeth Allo Isichei, A history of African societies to 1870, Cambridge
University Press, 1997 (ISBN 0-521-45599-5, lire en ligne), p. 70
6. (en) Kit W. Wesler, Historical archaeology in Nigeria, Africa World Press, 1998
(ISBN 0-86543-610-X, lire en ligne), p. 90

http://thehaitianblogger.blogspot.com/2009/05/most-religious-practices-originate-from.html

How the Nok are connected to Ancient Egypt.

Sub-Saharan Africa's [Nok] relation to ancient Egypt can be substantiated [for one] via
sociological means such as: "religion, which reveals the Egyptian/Nubian pantheon replicated
in Benin, Togo and Nigeria from the Fon, Ew and Yoruba cultures." 3 The Nok culture predates
Ancient Egyptian, and evidence from artifacts of Nok civilization shows "that
a shamanic religion was established in the Nok society. Certain representations of bird-men,
half-sphinx and half-sphinge can be linked to the animism of ancient Egypt." 4 Also,
"archeology, with the excavations carried out in Upper Egypt and Sudan, highlight[ing] the
southernmost origin of Egyptian civilization."3

Most Religious Practices Originate from

Vodun
The Vodun religion is practiced by over 60 million people worldwide. "Today, there are two
virtually unrelated forms of the religion:
An actual religion, Vodun practiced in Benin, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Haiti, Togo and
various centers in the US - largely where Haitian refugees have settled.
An evil, imaginary religion, which we will call Voodoo. It has been created for Hollywood
movies, complete with violence, bizarre rituals, etc. It does not exist in reality." 1
Vodun's roots trace back 6000 years directly to the Yoruba people of sub-saharan Africa. They
lived in Western Africa in The Kingdom of Dahomey from 1690 - 1901. Dahomey occupied parts
of today's Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Enslaved Africans brought the Yoruba religion or Vodun
with them when they were forcibly shipped to Haiti and other islands in the West Indies.
The Nok: Vodun's ancient practitioners
"In 1928, archaeologists unearthed artifacts from an amazing culture that flourished from
about 500BC to AD200. The archaeologists referred to the ancient culture as the Nok, the
name of a modern Nigerian village where they made their discovery." 2

The Nok was the first known iron-smelting civilization in West Africa, and
the first known art-producing civilization in sub-saharan Africa.

This video is a "summary of all the essential information concerning the geography,
history, culture, technique and aesthetics of the Nok civilization." mmoire d'afrique

How the Nok are connected to Ancient Egypt.

Sub-Saharan Africa's [Nok] relation to ancient Egypt can be substantiated [for one] via
sociological means such as: "religion, which reveals the Egyptian/Nubian pantheon replicated
in Benin, Togo and Nigeria from the Fon, Ew and Yoruba cultures." 3 The Nok culture predates
Ancient Egyptian, and evidence from artifacts of Nok civilization shows "that
a shamanic religion was established in the Nok society. Certain representations of bird-men,
half-sphinx and half-sphinge can be linked to the animism of ancient Egypt." 4 Also,
"archeology, with the excavations carried out in Upper Egypt and Sudan, highlight[ing] the
southernmost origin of Egyptian civilization."3

How Vodun/The Ancient Egyptian Cult of Isis connect to Christianity's Cult of the Virgin
Mary.
There are a number of points of similarity between Roman Catholicism and Vodun:
Both believe in a supreme being.
The Loa [Lwa] resemble Christian Saints, in that they were once people who led exceptional
lives, and are usually given a single responsibility or special attribute.
Both believe in an afterlife.
Both have, as the centerpiece of some of their ceremonies, a ritual sacrifice and
consumption of flesh and blood.
Both believe in the existence of invisible evil spirits or demons.
Followers of Vodun believe that each person has a met tet (master of the head) which
corresponds to a Christian's patron saint.1

There is little doubt that early images of the Madonna & Child are based on that of Horus &
Isis. "In addition to being the fertile wife of Osiris, Isis is honored for her role as the mother of
Horus, one of Egypt's most powerful gods. She was also the divine mother of every pharoah of
Egypt, and ultimately of Egypt itself. She assimilated with Hathor, another goddess of fertility,
and is often depicted nursing her son Horus. There is a wide belief that this image served as
inspiration for the classic Christian portrait of the Madonna and Child." 5

(left) A bronze statue of Isis nursing Horus from Ptolemaic Egypt;

(right) A famous mediaeval icon of Mary and Jesus.
"In the Roman Empire, the cult of Isis was very popular throughout the Mediterranean area. It
focused on the celebration of the mysteries of the death and the resurrection of Osiris. Isis,
had been the consort of Osiris, and after his murder she recovered the scattered parts of his
body and restored them to life. Osiris then became king of the dead and his son Horus became
king of the living. The story of Isis, Osiris and Horus parallels the Christian mysteries of the
virgin birth and the resurrection. It is also the origin of the certain [sic] Christian symbol of
the Madonna and Child."6

Hadrian's Roman coin honoring Isis.

Also indicative of the African influence on Christianity is the fact that there are numerous
sites dedicated to the Black Virgin Mary in France, Spain and Italy. The Cult of the Black
Virgin reflected the "deeper senses and beliefs of newly Christianized Western Europe at the
end of the Roman Period." The Black Madonna of Czestochova, the "queen" of Poland, is a well

known religious icon representative of this widespread & dense network of shrines dedicated
to the Black Madonna/Virgin Mary.

The Black Virgin Mary of Poland

Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism and many
othermonotheistic religions (a single omnipotent creator-god rules over the universe along
with several hundred lower gods [saints]), can trace their origins back to the religion of
Vodun. This is because Vodun is a religion of a single creator-god [Olorun/God] and lesser
"spirits" [lwas/saints] that promises eternal life through worship and has many other similar
religious traditions reflective of the modern religions that developed later. It is therefore
possible to conclude that most major religions are generally derived from Vodun.

Mounted by the spirit of the Lwa.

Mounted by the spirit of the Lord.

P O S T E D B Y T H E Z E N H A I T I A N AT 1 : 2 9 AM
L A B E L S : A N C I E N T C U LTS , C ATH O L I C C H U R C H , E G Y P T I A N C U LT O F I S I S , R E L I G I O N , V O D U N

5 COMMENTS:

thezenhaitian said...

It is a fascinating subject that really deserves a more thorough investigation.

I've updated the post with a couple of photos. The photographer Stephanie
Keith portrays Haitian Vodouist at a Vodun ceremony in Brooklyn, NY and young
women at a Christian event.
M AY 1 8 , 2 0 0 9 AT 1 0 : 2 7 AM

AL said...

What is your pre middle passage lineage? My father took an african ancestry
DNA test and it came back yoruba.
M AY 2 8 , 2 0 0 9 AT 1 2 : 5 2 AM

thezenhaitian said...

Most of the enslaved Africans of The Middle Passage came from West Africa, so
it is not surprising that your father's ancestors are from the Yoruba tribe now
residing in Nigeria and Benin.
I have a strong belief that my African ancestors (on my father's side) came from
Senegal. I have no real evidence, just family lore. Of course, that does not say
what tribe in Senegal he is from.
I often think about the fact that I am extremely fortunate to have come from
such strong stock as I did -- the enslaved Africans of The Middle Passage.
Enslaved Africans survived the horrors of slavery after the indigenous Indians
had been exterminated by the Spaniards. There is a chilling eyewitness account
of the Spaniards' barbarity by a contemporary of Columbus, Bartolome de las
Casas, in Howard Zinn's book, "voices of a people's history of the united states."
"All the people were slain or died after being taken into captivity and brought
to the Island of Hispaniola [Haiti] to be sold as slaves. When the Spaniards saw
that some of these had escaped, they sent a ship to find them, and it voyaged
for three years among the islands searching for those who had escaped being
slaughtered... of these [escapees] there were eleven and these I saw.
More than thirty other islands in the vicinity of San Juan are for the most part
and for the same reason depopulated, and the land laid waste. On these
islands I estimate there are 2,100 leagues of land that have been ruined and
depopulated, empty of people.
...We can estimate very surely and truthfully that in the forty years that have
passed, with the infernal actions of the Christians [Spaniards], there have
been unjustly slain more than twelve million men, women, and children. In
truth, I believe without trying to deceive myself that the number of the slain
is more like fifteen million."
The common ways mainly employed by the Spaniards who call themselves

Christian and who have gone there to extirpate those pitiful nations and wipe
them off the earth is by unjustly waging cruel and bloody wars. Then, when
they have slain all those who fought for their lives or to escape the tortures
they would have to endure, that is to say, when they have slain all the native
rulers and young men (since the Spaniards usually spare only the women and
children, who are subjected to the hardest and bitterest servitude ever
suffered by man or beast), they enslave any survivors. With these infernal
methods of tyranny they debase and weaken countless numbers of those
pitiful Indian nations.
-- Bartolome de las Casas, Two Readings on the Legacy of Columbus (Reading
from 1542)
M AY 2 8 , 2 0 0 9 AT 5 : 0 0 P M

AL said...

Maybe one day you can take an african ancestry test and you can find out about
your mothers side or your fathers side, the test does the original dna strand. I
think the web site is africanancestry.com I recently watched judge hacthett
take the test on her show and it was a nice experience.
J U N E 1 , 2 0 0 9 AT 8 : 0 7 P M

Osama Zain said...

So good topic really i like any post talking about Ancient Egypt but i want to
say thing to u Ancient Egypt not that only ... you can see in Ancient
Egypt Ancient Egyptian Godas and Goddess and more , you shall search in
Google and Wikipedia about that .... thanks a gain ,,,
A P R I L 2 5 , 2 0 1 2 AT 3 :1 8 AM

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Edwidge Danticat Reknown author:

Association of Haitian Journalists:

BOYCOTT the Dominican Republic as a rogue nation for making apartheid legal in the Western
Hemisphere. Demand international sanctions and that Haiti's government STOP all
trade/commerce with the DR and deport the DR ambassador and staff back to DR, recall its
ambassador and staff from the DR IMMEDIATELY. Sign the petition

A Dominican Republic vacation is hazardous to your health.

A Barbaric Lynching of Haitian in the Dominican Republic

On Wed. Feb 10, 2015, in this paradise of Euro-development, DR terrorist hung a young Haitian
shoe shine worker, named Claude 'Tulile' Jean Harry in Santiago Park. His hand and foot tied
together. Read more.
Lynching is an old U.S. Jim Crow method of terrorizing the African-American community. Lynching
has been revived by ISIS.
Haitians are the least violent people in the Caribbean. Nations such as the colonized DR have 4
times more violence, larger militarized forces, more foreign owned property and lots of pedophile
tourists and prostitution. US' colonization of the DR since the failed 1963 independence struggle,
has made Dominican women the 4th most trafficked prostitutes in the world (after Brazil,
Thailand, and the Philippines).

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http://originalpeople.org/the-nok-civilization-of-nigeria/

The Nok Civilization of Nigeria

inShare

The Nok culture appeared in Nigeria around 1000 BC and vanished under unknown circumstances around
300 AD in the region of West Africa. This region lies in Northern and Nigeria. Its social system is thought to
have been highly advanced. The Nok culture was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of lifesized Terracotta.

The refinement of this culture is attested to by the image of a Nok dignitary at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
The dignitary is portrayed wearing a crooked baton. The dignitary is also portrayed sitting with flared nostrils,
and an open mouth suggesting performance. Other images show figures on horseback, indicating that the Nok
culture possessed the horse.
Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in Nok culture in Africa at least by 550 BC and possibly
earlier. Christopher Ehret has suggested that iron smelting was independently discovered in the region prior to
1000 BC
Their function is still unknown, but scientific field work has started in 2005 to systematically investigate the
archaeological sites. For the most part, the terracotta is 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.

Nok sculpture, terracotta, Louvre

The 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.
Little is known of the original function of the pieces, but theories include ancestor portrayal, grave markers,
and charms to prevent crop failure, infertility, and illness. Also, based on the dome-shaped bases found on
several figures, they could have been used as finials for the roofs of ancient structures.

Margaret Young-Sanchez, Associate Curator of Art of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania in The Cleveland
Museum of Art, explains that most Nok ceramics were shaped by hand from coarse-grained clay and
subtractively sculpted in a manner that suggests an influence from wood carving. After some drying, the
sculptures were covered with slip and burnished to produce a smooth, glossy surface. The figures are hollow,
with several openings to facilitate thorough drying and firing. The firing process most likely resembled that used
today in Nigeria, in which the pieces are covered with grass, twigs, and leaves and burned for several hours.
In 1928, the first find was accidentally unearthed at a level of 24 feet in an alluvial tin mine in the vicinity of the
village of Nok near the Jos Plateau region of Nigeria (Folorunso 32). As a result of natural erosion and
deposition, Nok terracottas were scattered at various depths throughout the Sahel grasslands, causing difficulty
in the dating and classification of the mysterious artifacts.
Luckily, two archaeological sites, Samun Dukiya and Taruga, were found containing Nok art that had remained
unmoved. Radiocarbon and thermo-luminescence tests narrowed the sculptures age down to between 2,000
and 2,500 years ago, making them some of the oldest in West Africa.
Because of the similarities between the two sites, archaeologist Graham Connah believes that Nok artwork
represents a style that was adopted by a range of iron-using farming societies of varying cultures, rather than
being the diagnostic feature of a particular human group as has often been claimed.

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

The Nok culture was discovered in 1928 on the Jos Plateau during tin mining.

Lt-Colonel john Dent-Young, an Englishman, was leading mining operations in the Nigerian village of Nok.
During these operations, one of the miners found a small terracotta of a monkey head. Other finds included a
terracotta human head and a foot. The colonel, at a later date, had these artifacts placed in a museum in Jos.

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 ofKatsina 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).
The archaeologist Bernard Fagg, in his studies on the Nok culture, identified the Nok culture with central
Nigerian groups such as the Ham (Jaba) ethnic group of Southern Kaduna State, based on similarities between
some of the cultural practices and dressing of those modern central Nigerian groups and the figures depicted in
the Nok art.

Repatriation
In February 2013, Daily Trust reported that the Nigerian Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and National
Orientation repossessed five Nok statuettes looted by a French thief in August 2010. The pieces had been
seized by French customs agents, and were repatriated following a Nigerian government Directive. Antiquities
analysts estimated the sculptures to be between 2,700 and 3,400 years old.

Area of the Nok culture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nok_culture

Volume 64 Number 4, July/August 2011

by Roger Atwood

A terracotta head created by the Nok culture, one of ancient West Africas most advanced civilizations,
emerges at a dig site near Janjala, Nigeria.(Courtesy Peter Breunig)

In 1943, British archaeologist Bernard Fagg received a visitor in the central Nigerian town of Jos, where he had
spent the previous few years gathering and classifying ancient artifacts found on a rugged plateau. The visitor
carried a terracotta head that, he said, had been perched atop a scarecrow in a nearby yam field. Fagg was
intrigued. The piece resembled a terracotta monkey head he had seen a few years earlier, and neither piece
matched the artifacts of any known ancient African civilization.
Fagg, a man of boundless curiosity and energy, traveled across central Nigeria looking for similar artifacts. As
he recounted later, Fagg discovered local people had been finding terracottas in odd places for yearsburied
under a hockey field, perched on a rocky hilltop, protruding from piles of gravel released by power-hoses in tin
mining. He set up shop in a whitewashed cottage that still stands outside the village of Nok and soon gathered
nearly 200 terracottas through purchase, persuasion, and his own excavations. Soil analysis from the spots
where the artifacts were found dated them to around 500 B.C. This seemed impossible since the type of
complex societies that would have produced such works were not supposed to have existed in West Africa that
early. But when Fagg subjected plant matter found embedded in the terracotta to the then-new technique of
radiocarbon dating, the dates ranged from 440 B.C. to A.D. 200. He later dated the scarecrow headnow
called the Jemaa Head after the village where it was foundto about 500 B.C. using a process called
thermoluminescence which gauges the time since baked clay was fired. Through a combination of luck,
legwork, and new dating techniques, Fagg and his collaborators had apparently discovered a hitherto unknown
civilization, which he named Nok.
One excavation site, near the village of Taruga, revealed something else Fagg had not expected: iron furnaces.
He found 13 such furnaces, and terracotta figurines were in such close associationinside the furnaces and
around themthat he postulated the terracottas were objects of worship to aid blacksmithing and smelting.
Carbon dating of charcoal inside the furnaces revealed dates as far back as 280 B.C., giving Nok the earliest

dates for iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa up to that time. The high number of smelters and quantity of
terracottas suggested he had found evidence of a dense, settled population.

For more than 2,000 years since the start of the Nok period, Nigerians have been building stone house
bases like this one.(Courtesy Roger Atwood)

Thus, in short order, Fagg had discovered some of the key markers of an advanced civilization: refined art and
organized worship, metal smelting, and sufficient population to support these activities. But he knew such a
society did not appear in isolation. Fagg, now back at Oxford University in England, wrote that Nok culture had
almost certainly begun earlier and survived longer than he had evidence for at the time. It was the product of a
mature tradition, he wrote, with the probability of a long antecedent history, of which as yet, no trace has been
found.
After 40 years of doing little archaeological exploration in the area, scholars are now returning to the scrubby,
hilly lands where Fagg worked and are finding that, indeed, the Nok thrived for longer than he had realized.
They may have been the first complex civilization in West Africa, existing from at least 900 B.C. to about A.D.
200. Their terracottas are now some of the most iconic ancient objects from Africa. And they may be the first
society in Africa south of the Sahara to smelt iron, although at least half a dozen competitors for that title have
surfaced since Fagg first excavated a Nok furnace.
Nigeria has a reputation for chaos, corruption, and expensive visas that has kept archaeologists away and
drastically slowed the pace of research. In 1959, anthropologist George Murdock quipped that for every ton of
earth moved by archaeologists on the Nile, a teaspoon is moved on the Niger. Scholarship has also been
hampered by an almost 40-year campaign of looting at Nok sites fed by the growing appetite for African
antiquities among collectors in the United States and Europe.
No one continued with the work of Bernard Fagg. Instead of scientific exploration, the Nok became a victim of
illegal digging and international art dealers, says Peter Breunig, of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in
Frankfurt, Germany. Looting tapered off after about 2005 because of tighter export restrictions and a glut of
fakes that frightened off collectors. Now, interest in Iron Age societies in Africa is surging as archaeologists

contemplate a wide-open field that could hold essential insights into how technologiesespecially ironspread
across continents.

The Nok were expert terracotta craftsman and their human figurines are one of the most distinctive
artifacts they left behind (Courtesy Barbara Voss)

Breunig and his colleague Nicole Rupp are leading a team of German and Nigerian researchers, students, and
even former looters excavating sites over some 150 square miles in central Nigeria, about two hours drive
north of the capital, Abuja. Their study area is but a microcosm of the Nok world, which covered more than
30,000 square miles, an area the size of Portugal.
On a black granite mountain towering over the savannah, Rupp and her team are digging neat trenches at the
summit. Within minutes, they start to find pottery sherds, grinding stones, and fragments of red terracotta
sculpture of the type first found by Fagg. Within an hour, the excavators have filled three big Ziploc bags with
artifacts. Among them is a terracotta arm broken off of a larger statue. Its coarse, grainy surface and realistic
modeling immediately identify it as distinctively Nok. In his classic survey of African art, Frank Willett wrote that
the Nok created Africas earliest sculptural tradition outside of Egypt. Like their contemporaries, the soldierbuilders of Xian, China, the Nok mastered the almost limitless sculptural possibilities of terracotta. With it they
created figures depicting illness, warfare, love, and music. For example, Rupp and Breunigs team has found a
sculpture of a man and woman kneeling in front of each other, their arms wrapped around each other in a
loving embrace, and also several bare-buttocked prisoners with ropes around their necks and waists. Another
figure, which has a skull for a head and wears an amulet around his neck, is shaking two instruments
resembling maracas. There is also a figure of a man with a wispy moustache, mouth open, as if in speech or
song, and one of a man playing a drum resting between his legs, possibly the earliest depiction of musical
performance in sub-Saharan Africa. At one site, Breunig and Rupp found 1,700 pieces of terracotta in barely
450 square yards, indicating a large population.
Despite the thematic variety, Nok terracotta has some characteristics that persist over hundreds of square
miles and centuries of production. Figures almost always show large-headed people with almond-shaped eyes
and parted lips. They often have grand headdresses or hairdos, which may indicate high status. A common
pose, and one much imitated by forgers, shows a man sitting with his arms resting on his knees, gazing

outward. Microscopic inspection of the clay used in the terracotta shows it to be remarkably uniform over the
whole Nok area, suggesting that the clay came from a single, yet-undiscovered source. It could, says Breunig,
support the idea of a unified Nok state or central authority of some kind.The homogeneity of the clay used for
terracotta might indicate centralized production. But other interpretations, including the concentration of skilled
specialists, are no less probable at the moment, says Breunig. I think there was a set of respected, central
rules that were enforced either through authorities, or through common beliefs, or both.

The triangular eyes and parted lips of this Nok terracotta figurine are characteristic of an artistic style
that endured for millennia even after the Nok culture disappeared. This one may represent a deity, an
ancestor, or be a portrait. (Courtesy Barbara Voss)

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 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 metal-working creates the conditions for civilization to flourish or vice versa remains an open
question for archaeologists.
Carbon dating on charcoal that Breunig gathered from a Nok iron smelter at a site called Intini yielded a date of
between 519 and 410 B.C., suggesting that iron technology was established earlier than previous scholars,
including Fagg, had realized. These may not be the oldest smelters in sub-Saharan Africa, however. French
archaeologists have located evidence of iron-smelting in the Termit Hills of Niger from as early as 1400 B.C.,
but critics point out that the wood used for dating could have been centuries old, a problem that dogs carbon
dating, especially in very arid places such as Niger, where the wood desiccates and lasts longer. Breunig
acknowledges that the problem could distort dates for the Intini furnace as well. But he has an important piece
of evidenceNok pottery, found inside the furnace alongside the charcoal, suggesting that they were placed
there around the same time.
As a result of his research, Breunig has been able to isolate a moment in time when iron and stone implements
coexisted. Excavators regularly find iron tools only a short distance from Nok stone axes, suggesting they were

used in the same communities, maybe even the same households. When iron first develops, it might be too
rare or too costly to be wasted on axes or other things that you can make with stone, he says. Our hypothesis
is that iron tools replaced stone tools only after the technology was developed enough to deliver sufficient
quantities of iron. The Nok is an almost perfect culture on which to test this assumption.

At Nok sites, metal tools made around 500 B.C. have been found alongside stone tools, attesting to the
manufacture of iron while stone was still being used. (Courtesy Barbara Voss)

Breunigs evidence has also reinforced a view held by most archaeologists that ancient West Africans moved
from stone tools directly to iron, without an intervening copper age. Thats a leap that few other parts of the
world appear to have made. With the exception of a site in Mauritania known as Grotte aux Chauves-souris,
where, starting in 1968, French archaeologists found copper tools and furnaces dating from 800 to 200 B.C.,
and another in Niger called Cuivre II, excavated by French archaeologists in the 1980s and dating from slightly
earlier, researchers have yet to find evidence of copper smelting before iron smelting anywhere in West Africa.
Its transition from Stone Age to Iron Age has puzzled researchers since Western European and North African
cultures moved into iron after first smelting copper for a millennium or so (while others, such as those in Peru,
made copper for centuries without ever developing iron). In the sense of a progression of technological
periods, with few exceptions, there was not a Copper Age between the Stone and Iron ages in West Africa,
says Tom Fenn, an expert on African metallurgy at the University of Arizona.
Iron technology was probably brought across the Sahara by travelers from North Africa, says Rod McIntosh, an
African specialist at Yale University. But archaeologists are looking at the possibility that West Africans
developed iron-working technology autonomously, possibly starting with the Nok. Iron technology, and whether
it was imported from across the Sahara or developed in West Africa, is currently a red-hot topic in the scholarly
community. Skeptics of autonomous development are accused of denigrating the achievements of African
technology, whereas believers are accused of lacking hard evidence. It has become a political debate, says
Breunig. He will not commit to one side of the argument over the other before he excavates more Nok smelters,
which he plans to do with a French archaeometallurgist next year.
One skeptic is Rdiger Krause, a European Iron Age expert at Goethe University. When people see that
somebody else has better technology, it moves very fast. And iron knives are much better than stone. You can

sharpen them, he says. Mobility was very high in the ancient world. From the north coast of Africa to Nigeria is
not a great distance for the movement of a new technology.

Archaeologist Peter Breunig visits the family of a team member near the excavation site.
(Courtesy Roger Atwood)

Little is understood about how Nok society ended. Sometime after A.D. 200, the once-thriving Nok population
declined, as attested to by a sharp drop in the volume of pottery and terracotta in soil layers corresponding to
those years. Overexploitation of natural resources and a heavy reliance on charcoal may have played a role,
says Breunig.
Even more puzzling is Noks legacy to later cultures. Art historians have long seen Nok as an isolated
phenomenon, a splendid relic cut off from the sequence of African art over the next two millennia. Later
civilizations in southern Nigeria had advanced metalworking skills and a tradition of naturalistic portraiture, and
art historians are looking more closely at what they might owe to Nok. The most celebrated of these later
cultures was Ife (pronounced EE-feh), whose people in southwestern Nigeria turned bronze into stunning
portrait heads around A.D. 1300.
We would need more research to establish a stylistic continuum between Nok and Ife, says Musa Hambolu,
research director at Nigerias National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Abuja. To do this would
require more detailed study of Nok sculptures because, for now, the evidence is very fragmentary.
Bernard Fagg wrestled with this questionwhere did Nok culture come from, and where did it go? He wrote
about the striking similarities of style and subject matter between Nok and Ife but acknowledged there was no
proof the people of Ife had ever seen Nok terracottas. Now Breunig is trying to solve that riddle. In the space of
1,000 years, West Africa moved from sedentary farming complexes like Nok to great empires, [such as Ife and
Benin], he says. No society is completely isolated in time. Thats a story were starting to tell.

http://www.archaeology.org/1107/features/nok_nigeria_africa_terracotta.html

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