Nok (culture) 1r54a

Nok (culture) (Redirigé depuis Nok (civilisation))

Pour les articles homonymes, voir Nok.

Culture de Nok

Figure féminine 48 cm 900 à 1 500 ans.

Définition Lieu éponyme

Nok

Caractéristiques Répartition géographique

Nigeria, Plateau de Jos

Période

Néolithique africain (Later Stone Age), premier âge du fer

Chronologie

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

Tendance climatique

Tempéré

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

Objets typiques Têtes 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 apparaît dans le Nord du Nigéria vers 1000 av. J.-C. et disparaît brusquement, pour des raisons inconnues, aux alentours de 300 ap. J.-C. On pense qu'elle est l'héritière d'une nation ancestrale qui se serait ramifiée pour donner naissance aux peuples Haoussa, Gbagyi, Birom, Kanouri, Nupe et Jukun. La culture Kwatarkwashi ou culture de

Sokoto, localisée au nord-ouest de Nok, est supposée être identique ou être l'ancêtre de la culture de Nok. Le système social de la culture de Nok semble avoir été hautement avancé 2. Elle est considérée comme la plus ancienne productrice de sculptures en terre cuite proche de la taille réelle. On trouve des sculptures représentant des cavaliers à cheval, ce qui indique que la culture de Nok connaissait cet animal3, peut-être arrivé d'Afrique du Nord. Le travail du fer, fonte et forgeage, apparaît dans la culture Nok vers 550 av. J.-C., mais il est possible qu'il soit encore plus ancien. Christopher Ehret (en) a suggéré que la fonte du fer a été pratiquée dans la région dès avant1000 av. J.-C.4,5 Sommaire [masquer]

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1Découverte

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2Sculptures 2.1Trafic illégal

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3Notes et références o

3.1Textes originaux

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3.2Références

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3.3Bibliographie 

3.3.1Webographie

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3.4Crédits d'auteur

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3.5Liens externes

Découverte[modifier | modifier le code] La culture de Nok fut découverte par les Européens en 1928, sur le plateau de Jos, à l'occasion de travaux pour une mine d'étain située en terrain alluvial6. Le lieutenant-colonel John Dent-Young, un Anglais, conduisait les opérations minières dans le village nigérian de Nok lorsqu'un des mineurs trouva, à 7 mètres sous le niveau du sol, une tête de singe réalisée en terre cuite. D'autres trouvèrent des têtes humaines ainsi qu'un pied, toujours dans le même matériau. Le colonel, un peu plus tard, déposa ces objets dans un musée de Jos7. En 1932, un groupe de onze statues en parfait état fut découvert près de la ville de Sokoto. D'autres statues, provenant deKatsina Ala furent ensuite mises au jour. Quoiqu'elles soient très similaires à celles de Nok, la relation entre les deux sites n’est pas encore clairement établie.

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

Sa population est estimée en 2006 à 455 000 habitants. Sokoto était la capitale de l’ancien Empire de Sokoto annexé par la suite par les Anglais en 1903. La ville, siège de l'ancien Califat de Sokoto, est à forte majorité musulmane. Sokoto est devenue un important centre de formation musulman. Le sultan de Sokoto est considéré comme le chef spirituel des musulmans du nord du pays.

Encore plus tard, en 1943, près du village de Nok, une nouvelle série de figurines fut découverte par accident à l'occasion d'opérations minières. Un ouvrier avait trouvé une tête humaine en terre cuite qu'il avait ramenée chez lui afin qu'elle serve d'épouvantail dans son champ d'ignames. Elle tint ce rôle pendant un an. Elle finit par attirer l’attention du directeur, qui l'acheta. Il apporta la tête à Jos et la montra à l'istrateur civil stagiaire Bernard Fagg (en), qui en compris immédiatement l'importance. Il demanda à tous les mineurs de l'informer de leurs découvertes et fut ainsi en mesure d'accumuler plus de cent cinquante pièces. Après cela, Bernard et Angela Fagg ordonnèrent des fouilles systématiques qui révélèrent des trouvailles dispersées dans une zone beaucoup plus grande que le site originel. En 1977, le nombre de terres cuites découvertes se montait à cent cinquante-trois, principalement issues de dépôts secondaires : les statuettes avaient été charriées par les inondations et retrouvées dans les lits asséchés des rivières de savane au nord et au centre du Nigeria, dans la partie sud du plateau de Jos. Les terres cuites avaient donc été exposées à l'érosion et dispersées à diverses profondeurs, ce qui rend difficile leur classement et leur datation. Deux sites archéologiques, Samun Dukiya et Taruga, furent découverts, contenant des pièces qui étaient restées en place. Les datations au radiocarbone et par thermoluminescence donnèrent des âges entre 2 000 et 2 500 ans avant l’ère 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 été obtenues depuis, grâce à de nouvelles fouilles, permettant de faire remonter les débuts de la culture Nok encore plus loin dans le temps8. Du fait de la similarité entre les sites, l'archéologue Graham Connah croit que « les œuvres de Nok forment un style qui a été adopté par une large palette de sociétés agricoles, utilisatrices du fer, représentant des cultures variées, plutôt que d'être le marqueur d'un groupe humain particulier comme cela a été souvent affirmétrad 2,9. » Devenu archéologue, Bernard Fagg, quant à lui, dans ses études concernant la culture de Nok, identifie cette dernière avec les groupes humains du centre du Nigeria, notamment ceux appartenant au groupe ethnique Ham (Jaba)10, résidant essentiellement au sud de l'État de Kaduna. Fagg fonde sa démonstration sur la similarité entre les pratiques culturelles modernes de ces peuples et les personnages représentés dans l'art Nok. L'aire de la culture Nok s'étend du nord au sud sur environ 272 kilomètres et, d'est en ouest, sur 240 kilomètres. Une vingtaine de sites ont, à ce jour, révélé des vestiges 11.

Sculptures[modifier | modifier le code] La fonction des sculptures est toujours inconnue, mais un travail scientifique systématique a commencé en 2005 sur les sites afin de situer et comprendre ces sculptures dans leur contexte archéologique12,13,14. La majeure partie des terres cuites se retrouvent sous la forme de fragments épars. C'est pourquoi l'art Nok est essentiellement connu pour ses têtes, d'hommes et de femmes, dont les coiffures sont particulièrement détaillées et raffinées. Les statues sont brisées car elles sont habituellement

trouvées dans des boues alluviales sur des terrains façonnés par l'érosion de l’eau. Les statues qui s'y trouvent sont cachées et ont été roulées, polies et brisées. Les pièces de grande taille intactes sont rares, ce qui leur confère une grande valeur sur le marché international de l'art. Les terres cuites sont creuses, fabriquées avec des boudins ; elles sont proches de la taille des têtes humaines et les corps sont représentés de manière stylisée, ornés de nombreux bijoux et dans différentes postures. On sait peu de choses sur la fonction de ces objets, mais les théories évoquent la représentation des ancêtres, des pierres tombales et des amulettes, destinées à éviter les mauvaises récoltes, l'infertilité et les maladies. On pense aussi, s'appuyant sur le fait que plusieurs pièces sont en forme de dôme, qu'elles ont pu servir de toits à d'anciennes structures. Margaret Young-Sanchez, du Cleveland Museum of Art, explique que la plupart des céramiques Nok ont été façonnées à la main en utilisant de l'argile à grain grossier et en utilisant un type de sculpture consistant à ôter de la matière, à la manière de la sculpture sur bois. Après séchage, les sculptures étaient recouverte d'une patine et polies afin d'obtenir une surface lisse et brillante. Les objets sont creux, avec plusieurs ouvertures qui facilitent le séchage et la cuisson. Le processus de cuisson ressemblait à celui qui est actuellement utilisé au Nigeria, dans lequel les pièces à cuire sont recouvertes d'herbe, de brindilles et de feuilles et mises à chauffer durant plusieurs heures.

Trafic illégal[modifier | modifier le code] Les sculptures nok font l'objet d'un trafic illégal au moins depuis les années 1960, et figurent sur la « liste rouge des objets archéologiques africains » publiée par leConseil international des musées en 200015 ; des faux sont également réalisés16. Des sculptures ont été interceptées ces dernières années par les douanes françaises (2008) et américaines (2010) et restituées au Nigéria. En février 2013, le journal Daily Trust rapporte que le ministère du tourisme nigérian est entré en possession de cinq statuettes Nok, volées par un Français en août 2010. Les objets avaient été saisis par la douane française et ont été rapatriés selon les directives du gouvernement nigérian. Les experts estiment que ces sculptures sont vieilles de 2 700 à 3 400 ans17. 

Homme, Musée du quai Branly18.

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Homme, Louvre.

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Sculpture composite, Musée du Louvre.

Notes et références[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. »

Références[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 été produites en grande quantité par une culture arriéréetrad 1,1. » 3. ↑ « De nouveaux types de caprinés et de bovinés, ainsi qu'éventuellement le cheval, apparaissent ensuite en Afrique de l'Ouest entre le milieu du I millénaire av. J.-C. et le début du Iermillénaire de notre ère [...] qui serait également associée à l'arrivée de population saharienne. » in Sylvain Ozainne, Un néolithique ouestafricain: cadre chrono-culturel, économique et environnemental de l'Holocène récent en Pays dogon, Mali, Africa Magna Verlag, 2013, 304 p. (présentation 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, février 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 (consulté 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-même Ham, sa langue est le Hyam, mais il est appelé Jaba par les Haoussas. 11. ↑ Encyclopædia 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 archéologiques africains [archive], icon.museum. 16. ↑ (en) Nok Terracottas [archive] sur traffickingculture.org. 17. ↑ (en) Mustapha Suleiman, « Hands Over Stolen Nigerian Artifacts » [archive], Daily Trust, 3 février 2013 (consulté le 4 avril 2016). 18. ↑ « Description de l'œuvre sur le site du musée » [archive] (consulté 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.

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

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

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(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.

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(en) R. Tylecote, « The origin of iron smelting in Africa », Westafrican Journal of Archaeology, no 5, 1975a, p. 1-9.

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(en) R. Tylecote, « Iron smelting at Taruga, Nigeria », Journal of Historical Metallurgy, no 2, 1975b, p. 49-56.

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(en) T. Shaw, « The Nok sculptures of Nigeria », Scientific American, vol. 244, no 2, 1er février 1981, p. 154-166 (lire en ligne)

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

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

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(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).

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Claire Boullier, Recherches méthodologiques sur la sculpture en terre cuite africaine : application à un corpus de sculptures archéologiques – en contexte et hors contexte – de la culture Nok (Nigeria) (thèse de doctorat d'Art et archéologie), Paris, Université PanthéonSorbonne, 2001, 640 p. — 2 vol.

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C. Boullier, A. Person, J.-F. Saliège et J. Polet, « Bilan chronologique de la culture Nok et nouvelle datations sur des sculptures », Afrique, Archéologie & Arts, no 2,2002, p. 9-28.

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(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 (présentation en ligne).

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(de) P. Breunig et N. Rupp, « Nichts als Kunst. Archäologische Forschungen zur früheisenzeitlichen Nok-Kultur in Zentral-Nigeria », Forschung Frankfurt, no 2-3,2006, p. 73-76.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Histoire des villes d'Afrique Noire: Des origines à la colonisation, Albin Michel, 2014 (1re éd. 1993), 416 p. (présentation en ligne)

Webographie[modifier | modifier le code] 

Laurence Garenne-Marot, « Invention de la culture Nok (repères chronologiques) », dans Encyclopædia Universalis en ligne (lire en ligne)

Crédits d'auteur[modifier | modifier le code]

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(en) Cet article est partiellement ou en totalité issu de l’article de Wikipédia en anglais intitulé « Nok culture » (voir la liste des auteurs).

Liens externes[modifier | modifier le code] 

(es) « Arte africano: terratocas », sur fundacionjimenezarellano.com (consulté le 4 avril 2016) Sur les autres projets Wikimedia :

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Nok (culture), sur Wikimedia Commons

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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) · Deuxième république (1979 – 1983) · Troisième république (1993 – 1999) · Quatrièm

Plateau de Jos Un article de Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre. Aller à : navigation, rechercher 9° 34′ 00″ N 9° 05′ 00″ E9.56666, 9.08333

Cet article est une ébauche concernant le Nigeria et la montagne. Vous pouvez partager vos connaissances en l’améliorant (comment ?) selon les recommandations des projets correspondants.

Plateau de Jos

Carte topographique du Nigeria montrant le plateau de Jos dans le centre du pays. Géographie Altitude

1 829 m, Collines de Shere

Superficie

7 770 km2 istration

Pays États

Nigeria Plateau, Kaduna, Bauchi Géologie

Roches

Granites et roches volcaniques

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Le plateau de Jos (appelé auparavant plateau de Bauchi) est une région de plateaux couvrant 7 770 km2, située à une altitude moyenne de 1 280 mètres et culminant à 1 829 mètres aux collines de Shere (en), ce qui en fait la seule région au climat tempéré du Nigeria. Le plateau de Jos a donné son nom à l'État de Plateau où elle se trouve.

Histoire[modifier | modifier le code] Au XIXe siècle le plateau de Jos était un refuge pour les populations voulant échapper au jihad mené par les musulmans peuls, comme Usman dan Fodio dans le nord de Nigeria. Les populations du plateau sont très diverses : une soixantaine de groupes ethno-linguistiques ont pu être identifiés, les plus nombreux étant les Berom, dans la partie nord du plateau.

En 1929, la culture du peuple Nok est redécouverte à l'occasion de recherches de gisements miniers sur le plateau de Jos. Après la colonisation britannique la région devient, grâce à son climat, la destination touristique principale des étrangers résidents au Nigeria. Mais les heurts violents ayant opposés des populations sédentaires et nomades (Fulani) et les émeutes urbaines opposant musulmans et chrétiens au début du XXIe siècle ont fait chuter l'activité touristique.

Géologie[modifier | modifier le code] Le plateau de Jos est granitique avec certaines élévations d'origine volcaniques et recèle de grandes quantités d'étain, qui ont été exploitées au cours du XXe siècle. Des rivières importantes (Kaduna, Gongola, Hadejia et Yobe) prennent leur source à cet endroit.

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

Cet article est une ébauche concernant le Nigeria. Vous pouvez partager vos connaissances en l’améliorant (comment ?) selon les recommandations des projets correspondants.

Jos

Vue satellitaire (Nasa World Wind).

istration Pays État

Nigeria Plateau Démographie

Populatio n

873 943 hab.

(2010)

Géographie

Coordonn ées

Altitude

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

Géolocalisation sur la carte : Nigeria

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Jos est la capitale de l'État de Plateau, au centre du Nigeria. Située sur le plateau de Jos à près de 1 300 mètres d'altitude, elle jouit d'un climat plus tempéré que le reste du pays avec des températures moyennes comprises entre 21 et 25°. Sommaire 

1 Histoire

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2 Voir aussi

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3 Notes et références

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4 Liens externes

Histoire[modifier | modifier le code]

La ville est créée au début du XXe siècle par les colons britanniques à l'emplacement d'un village nommé Geash pour exploiter l'étain découvert dans la région. La ville se développe rapidement à partir de 1914 avec l'arrivée du chemin de fer. Elle devient alors une destination touristique privilégiée pour les expatriés résidents au Nigeria en raison de son climat. Mais, au début XXIe siècle, des heurts violents opposent musulmans du nord et chrétiens du sud qui font des milliers de morts. En 2004, le gouverneur de l'État 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 nécessitent l'intervention de l'armée font au moins 465 morts (environ 400 musulmans et 65 chrétiens) et un millier de blessés, la Croix-Rouge estime que 17 000

personnes ont été déplacées[1]. Le dimanche 7 mars 2010, ont lieu de nouvelles violences entre Peuls musulmans et Birom chrétiens qui ont fait plus de 100 morts à majorité chrétienne. Voir aussi[modifier | modifier le code] 

Liste des évêques et archevêques de Jos

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Liste de massacres

Notes et références[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'État de Benue ; sa capitale est la ville éponyme. Elle abrite un site archéologique important où d'importants objets de la culture Nok ont été mis au jour. Aire urbaine[modifier | modifier le code]

La ville de Katisna Ala abrite l'une des plus anciennes école du pays, le Government College Katsina-Ala, créé en 1914, qui a formé de nombreux membres éminents de la société nigérianne. La ville est située au bord de la rivière Katsina, un affluent de la Bénoué. Elle est majoritairement peuplée par des représentants du peuple Tiv[1]. Site archéologique[modifier | modifier le code]

Des statues en terre cuite ont été trouvées à Katsina Ala au milieu du XXe siècle. Cela comprend des têtes humaines réalistes, quelques animaux et des parties de statues plus importantes. Ces objets sont similaires à ceux trouvés à Nok, environ 209 km au nord ; on pense qu'ils ont été confectionnés par un peuple appartenant à la même culture que celle de Nok[2]. Les figures humaines représentent probablement des ancêtres ou des esprits. Selon Bernard Fagg, un archéologue qui a mené des études approfondies sur la culture Nok, les objets de Katsina Ala sont représentatifs d'un « sous-style » distinct[3]. Les statues de Taruga et de Samun Dukiya sont similaires et présentent, elles aussi, des particularités stylisques distinctives[4].

Le travail du fer commence sur le site vers le IVe siècle av. J.-C., un peu plus tard que sur celui de Taruga[5]. Des billes d'étain ont aussi été trouvées, certaines pouvant être des imitations de cauris[6]. Notes et références[modifier | modifier le code] 

(en) Cet article est partiellement ou en totalité issu de l’article de Wikipédia en anglais intitulé « 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, Ewé 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." – mémoire 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, Ewé 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 , 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 age 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 age 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 age. Enslaved Africans survived the horrors of slavery after the indigenous Indians had been exterminated by the Spaniards. There is a chilling eyewitness 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 ed, 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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WBAI 99.5 FM NY 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. It’s 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 , 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 Africa’s 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 years—buried 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 head—now called the Jemaa Head after the village where it was found—to 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 association—inside the furnaces and around them—that 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 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, . 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 technologies—especially iron—spread 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 Africa’s 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 Breunig’s 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, 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 evidence—Nok 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)

Breunig’s 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. That’s 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 Rüdiger 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 Nok’s 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 Nigeria’s 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 question—where 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. That’s a story we’re starting to tell.”

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

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