Exploring the Nok Culture Exploring the Nok Culture Joint Research Project of Goethe University Frankfurt/Main, Germany & National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria A publication of Goethe University, Institute for Archaeological Sciences, African Archaeology and Archaeobotany, Frankfurt/Main, Germany January 2017 Text by Peter Breunig Editing by Gabriele Franke & Annika Schmidt Translation by Peter Dahm Robertson Layout by Kirstin Brauneis-Fröhlich Cover Design by Gabriele Försterling Drawings by Monika Heckner & Barbara Voss Maps by Eyub F. Eyub Photos by Frankfurt Nok Project, Goethe University Printed by Goethe University Computer Center © 2017 Peter Breunig, Goethe University Project Funding Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) Partners Support A Successful Collaboration The NCMM and Goethe University continued their successful collaboration for field research on the Nok Culture Anyone interested in West Africa’s – and in central Nigeria. Starting in 2005, particularly Nigeria’s – prehistory will NCMM has ever since taken care of eventually hear about the Nok Culture. Its administrative matters and arranged artful burnt-clay (terracotta) sculptures the participation of their archaeological make it one of Africa’s best known experts which became valuable members ancient cultures. The Nok sculptures are of the project’s team. More recently, among the oldest in sub-Saharan Africa archaeologists from Ahmadu Bello and represent the origins of the West University in Zaria and Jos University African tradition of portraying people and joined the team. Together, the Nigerian animals. This brochure is a summary of and German archaeologists completed what we know about the Nok Culture and difficult work to gain information on this how we know what we know. ancient culture and salvage its sites and material remains. Owing to the more than Much of what we know comes from ten years of intensive research, the results two institutions: the Goethe University of the joint project are now considered at Frankfurt/Main in Germany, and the in professional circles a prime example National Commission for Museums of successful long-term international and Monuments (NCMM) in Nigeria. cooperation. Their successful collaboration began a long time before the Nok Project. From the early 1990s until 2002, scientists The Discovery Of The Nok from both institutions collaborated with Culture archaeologists from Maiduguri University, working in north-eastern Nigeria’s Chad Basin. An interdisciplinary project there But what does “Nok Culture” actually researched the cultural development of mean? The Nok Culture is a scientific the last 4000 years. One of the project’s construct, named by British archaeologist discoveries was the Gajiganna Culture: Bernard Fagg in the mid-20th century. the earliest farming culture in Northeast Today, archaeologists avoid calling Nigeria. It existed from ca. 1800 BCE prehistoric entities “cultures,” but when to 500 BCE and was named after the Fagg first looked at the characteristic site where the first finds were made terracotta sculptures, he was struck by (BREUNIG 2005). Then, at the end of the their expressive style and their surmised Gajiganna Culture, larger settlements, importance for the society that created some fortified, suddenly begin to appear them. They were found accidentally, (MAGNAVITA ET AL. 2006). Another significant mostly in British colonial tin mines in find was an 8000-year-old dugout canoe the wider Nok-Jemaa region, in central discovered near the town of Dufuna – the Nigeria (Fig. 1) and depict people and so far oldest watercraft in Africa (BREUNIG occasionally animals, featuring clear 1996). stylistic similarities (FAGG 1977). From Fig. 1. Map showing the hypothetical expansion of the Nok Culture, with sites and towns mentioned in Fig. 2. Overlooking Nok village (picture taken in 2005). the text. For details in the Janjala area, see Fig. 17. this, Fagg concluded that if complex sculptures were made in the same style and most likely for the same purpose, the people who made them must have been similar in other respects as well: living according to the same social rules, or sharing a joint view of the world, which could be considered the core of a “culture.” At the beginning, however, Fagg did not have much more evidence than the clay sculptures. Then, in the 1960s, he discovered iron-smelting remains in the form of furnaces at the site of Taruga – possibly among the earliest iron-smelting in Africa (FAGG 1968). From today’s point of view, iron-smelting and sculptures are not enough to define an archaeological culture, because there are too many 4 unknown aspects: How did people settle? the Nok Culture did not originate in Nok; What did they eat? Were they hunter- Bernard Fagg was just following common gatherers or sedentary farmers? In what archaeological naming practice, which environment did they live? What did they names finds after the place of their first do with their dead? Where did they come discovery. No one knows where the Nok from, and what happened to them? Fagg Culture actually originated. It is very likely had no answers to these questions, but that it did not happen in a single place, examined the artful terracotta sculptures but that people, spread out across a and concluded – understandably larger region in central Nigeria, were in – that art and culture had to be closely contact through relationships, trade, connected. and traditions. They therefore probably had similar everyday objects, religious So why “Nok”? The Nok Culture is practices, and a sense of shared cultural named after the small village of Nok, community. situated about 70 km north-east of the capital city of Abuja in central From the very beginning, Bernard Fagg Nigeria (Figs. 1 & 2). The first terracotta – who gave Nigeria its first National sculptures were found in the tin mines Museum, founded in Jos in 1952, and in its vicinity. Today, a National Museum, later became Director of the Nigerian administered by NCMM, displays Nok Federal Department of Antiquities – was and other regional cultural materials. But interested in knowing the age of the Nok Culture. At the time, newly developed daughter and an archaeologist herself physical dating methods suggested a – continued her father’s research and time between 500 BCE and 200 CE (FAGG in 1970 excavated Samun Dukiya, a 1962). This must have surprised Fagg a settlement site near Nok (A. FAGG 1972). great deal, because his discovery was This was a big step forward, because a sensation: the Nok Culture became settlements contain finds in primary the earliest tradition of large sculptures position, i.e. in places where people in sub-Saharan Africa. The only place actually used and left them. This was not where older sculptural art was known the case for the first terracotta sculptures was Egypt. that had been unearthed in the tin mines during Bernard Fagg’s time. The The second phase of Nok studies sculptures from the mines got to their began after Bernard Fagg had returned position by erosion, which meant that to England. Several other archaeologists information about their usual context with continued the research on the Nok other finds in the ground was missing. Culture and its mysterious sculptures: Angela Fagg Rackham – Bernard Fagg’s Fig. Heading for the Nok site of Kochio (picture taken in 2006). Joseph Jemkur of the University of 2005 – New Research Jos became the local expert on the Nok Culture. He was the one who discovered that Nok sculptures were apparently re- In 2005, a new phase of research used in more recent times as magical into the Nok Culture began. The grave offerings (JEMKUR 1992). Robert National Commission for Museums Soper made a different contribution: and Monuments in Abuja, Nigeria, and during an excavation at Katsina Ala, he German archaeologists from Goethe discovered terracotta sculptures in the University of Frankfurt/Main agreed to Nok style – sadly, no publication has been collaborate on a joint project funded by made, so that we still have very few details. the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Katsina Ala lies south of Benue River and (German Research Foundation, or DFG). to this date is the southernmost and only This “Nok Project” would study the Nok Nok site in this region. This suggested Culture for three reasons: that the Nok Culture was spread out across most of central Nigeria, since • Experts consider the Nok Culture the distance between the southernmost an unparalleled archaeological and northernmost find spots is a full phenomenon in Africa. 600 km (Fig. 1). Further finds, however, are needed to confirm whether the Nok • Despite its significance, there was Culture did in fact reach so far south. very little knowledge about the Nok Culture: almost all that was known was These facets were more or less all the that about 2000 years ago, a group of new knowledge that emerged about the people produced artful clay figures and Nok Culture during the second research iron. Archaeological research hoped phase, but developments in another to uncover more facts about the Nok area were far more active: art collectors Culture. discovered the Nok sculptures. Their expressive style and their place at the • The booming trade in sculptures and root of the African sculptural tradition organised looting suggested that the put them in international demand. remnants of the Nok Culture would be Business people began to organise non- completely destroyed if archaeology did scientific digs which are illegal under not attempt to salvage the knowledge Nigerian law. To this date, they illegally about the sites and finds in their retrieve and export the looted items original context. to Europe, Asia and America. Nigeria’s cultural heritage has been irreparably Finds in the ground are the only way damaged, and archaeology nearly archaeology has of understanding missed its chance to salvage this unique the time before writing. The first step, archaeological complex which is a part of therefore, was for researchers to find Nok Africa’s prehistoric past.