One of the most famous ancient sculptures in Africa spent years as a scarecrow. In the 1940s, a terracotta head found during tin mining near the village of Jemaa in central Nigeria was being used on a farm to frighten birds. Today it is known as the Jemaa Head, one of the treasures of the Nok culture.
The Nok culture
The Nok culture flourished in central Nigeria, on and around the Jos Plateau, roughly between 1000 BC or 500 BC and AD 200 or 500, depending on the source and the dating method. Its people made iron tools and remarkable terracotta sculptures.
Tin miners
The first Nok terracotta was found in 1928 at a tin mine near the village of Nok. More were found by miners in the following years.
Bernard Fagg
In 1943, the British archaeologist Bernard Fagg, then working in Jos, was shown a terracotta head. He realised its importance and began collecting and excavating, eventually gathering nearly two hundred pieces.
The sculptures
Nok terracottas are known for their stylised human heads, with elaborate hairstyles, large eyes with pierced pupils and detailed features. Some figures show jewellery and clothing. They are among the oldest known figurative sculptures south of the Sahara.
Dating
Archaeologists have used radiocarbon dating and thermoluminescence to date Nok sites and sculptures. Fagg dated the Jemaa Head to around 500 BC.
The Jos museum
In 1952 a national museum opened in Jos to house Nok terracottas and other finds.
Looting
Nok sculptures are valuable on the international art market, and looting of sites has been a serious problem. Illegally excavated pieces have been smuggled abroad, and Nigeria has worked to recover some of them.
Mysteries
Much about the Nok people is still unknown, including their language, their social organisation and the meaning of their sculptures. Research continues.
Iron and farming
Archaeologists believe the Nok people were farmers who also worked iron, making them part of one of the earliest iron-using societies in West Africa. Their settlements on hills and plateaus have yielded tools, furnaces and pottery alongside the famous sculptures.
Influence
Some scholars have suggested links between Nok art and later Nigerian sculptural traditions, such as those of Ife, though the connection is debated. What is clear is that Nok shows a sophisticated artistic tradition in the region more than two thousand years ago.
Africa’s history is often told as if it began with written records. The Nok terracottas, made more than two thousand years ago and found by accident by tin miners, are a reminder of how much older it is.
