Nok Artists Develop Terra-cotta Sculpture
At a glance:
- Series: Great Events from History: The Ancient World, Prehistory-476
- Categories: Arts
- Subcategories: African Americans, Blacks, Sculpture, Sculptors, Crafts, Prehistoric Humans
- Curriculum: African History, Ancient History
- Geographical Location: Nigeria
- Date: c. 1000-c. 500
Article abstract: The Iron Age African culture that flourished near the tin-mining village of Nok in Nigeria produced finely crafted figurative sculpture out of clay, using sophisticated firing techniques.
Summary of Event
Some of the earliest ironworking communities in Africa were those of the Nok culture in northern Nigeria. Their knowledge of furnaces and iron smelting apparently carried over into the firing of pottery and clay sculpture, as relics of this little-known group of people have shown. The most striking of the pieces unearthed from this...
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