History, Precolonial History of the Savanna

The Nok culture, which flourished between 500 bc and ad 200, is the earliest identifiable civilization in Nigeria’s north; the Nok are also the earliest of West Africa’s known ironworkers. (Their real identity unknown, the Nok are named for a village where miners first unearthed their artifacts.) Their famous figurines—finely crafted people and animals in terra-cotta—have influenced centuries of central Nigerian sculpture. Today the art of several central Nigerian peoples continues to reflect Nok style.