A Chronology of the Central Nigerian Nok Culture – 1500 BC to the Beginning of the Common Era Gabriele Franke Abstract Résumé The Central Nigerian Nok Culture and its well-known terra- Dans le centre du Nigeria, la culture de Nok ainsi que les cotta figurines have been the focus of a joint research project célèbres sculptures en terre cuite qui lui sont associées font between the Goethe University Frankfurt and the National l’objet depuis 2005 d’un projet de recherche conjoint entre la Commission for Museums and Monuments in Nigeria since Goethe-Universität de Francfort et la Commission pour les 2005. One major research question concerns chronological Musées et Monuments du Nigeria. Une question de recherche aspects of the Nok Culture, for which a period from around the essentielle concerne les aspects chronologiques de cette culture, middle of the first millennium BC to the first centuries AD had que des travaux antérieurs ont permis de rattacher à une been suggested by previous investigations. This paper presents période comprise entre le milieu du premier millénaire BC et les and discusses the radiocarbon and luminescence dates ob- premiers siècles de notre ère. Cet article présente et commente tained by the Frankfurt Nok project. Combining the absolute les dates radiocarbones et par thermoluminescence obtenues dates with the results of a comprehensive pottery analysis, a dans le cadre du projet Nok de l’Université de Francfort. chronology for the Nok Culture has been developed. An early Une chronologie pour la culture de Nok est proposée à partir phase of the Nok Culture’s development begins around the d’une approche combinant les dates absolues avec les résultats middle of the second millennium BC. Its main phase, in which d’une étude détaillée de la céramique. Une phase précoce de terracotta figurines and iron production appear, starts in the la culture de Nok débute vers le milieu du deuxième millénaire 9th century BC and ends in the 4th century BC. A later phase BC. Sa phase principale, au cours de laquelle apparaissent with vanishing evidence extends into the last centuries BC. On les sculptures en terre cuite ainsi que la métallurgie du fer, sites dating from the first centuries AD onwards no more Nok commence durant le neuvième siècle BC et s’achève au terracotta or pottery are found; the end of the Nok Culture is quatrième siècle BC. Une phase plus tardive, marquée par thus set around the turn of the Common Era. une nette diminution des témoignages archéologiques, s’étend jusqu’aux derniers siècles avant notre ère. La céramique ainsi que les sculptures en terre cuite typiques de la culture Nok disparaissent complètement sur les sites datés à partir des premiers siècles de notre ère. La fin de la culture de Nok peut ainsi être située aux alentours du tournant de notre ère. Keywords: Nok Culture, Nigeria, chronology, radiocarbon dating, pottery, Iron Age Gabriele Franke 8 [email protected] * Institute for Archaeological Sciences, African Archaeology & Archaeobotany, Goethe University, Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, 60629 Frankfurt a. M., Germany DOI 10.3213/2191-5784-10297 © Africa Magna Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. Published online 13 Dec 2016 Journal of African Archaeology Vol. 14 (3) Special Issue, 2016, pp. 257–289 257 This article is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 12:46:22PM via free access G. Franke Introduction sites was tested by surveys and excavations; absolute dates were obtained, both by luminescence measure- It was British archaeologist Bernard Fagg, working for ments on Nok figurines and by radiocarbon measure- the British colonial administration, who first identified ments on organic material. Most results fall into the the Nok Culture in 1944 when he discovered similarities first millennium BC, confirming Fagg’s age estimates. between a newly found terracotta head from Jemaa and In 2009, these investigations resulted in a long-term one found near the village of Nok in 1928. Both were research project (Frankfurt Nok project), funded by recovered in tin mines west of the Jos Plateau in Central the German Research Foundation (Breunig 2009) and Nigeria. Many more Nok terracotta parts were found currently being in its third project phase (2015–2017). subsequently in the alluvial though sealed deposits of The project’s key study area encompasses about 300 km2 these tin mines, especially near Nok village (Fagg 1945). (15 x 20 km) northeast of the Nigerian capital of Abuja; Establishing an age for the figurines proved difficult. a research station is located near the village of Janjala Today’s absolute dating methods such as radiocarbon (Kaduna State) (Fig. 1). One of the major research topics and luminescence were not yet devised for archaeologi- has been the establishment of a chronology of the Nok cal age determinations. The first indication came from Culture (Breunig 2009: 345–349). On the one hand, the geological layers, in which the figurines and other absolute dates have been collected from a large number cultural material were found. British geologist G. Bond of Nok sites; the dates provide an absolute time frame described a geological sequence which included the for the Nok Culture period and add substantially to the cultural horizon of the Nok terracotta figurines Bond( number of dates that were available before then. On the 1956: 198, 200). Assuming that the cutting of the river other hand, pottery analysis has resulted in the defini- channels, in which the finds were deposited, would have tion of several temporal pottery groups. Combining the needed a period of heavier rainfall, he tentatively cor- absolute dates and the results of the pottery analysis, related it with the Nakuran Wet Phase, a period of more a chronology of the Nok Culture has been developed, intense rainfall in the first millennium BC1, linked in East spanning more than a millennium (Franke 2014, 2015; Africa to the Later Stone Age. Further assuming that the Franke & Breunig 2014). deposition of the figurines would have occurred after the rainfall maximum, the age of the Nok Culture was set This article presents and discusses the absolute into the second half of the first millennium BC Fagg( dates obtained by the Frankfurt Nok project between 1956: 221) — at that time a surprisingly old age for the 2005 and 2014 (Table 1, Table 2a & 2b) and provides elaborate terracotta figurines, placing them among the a list of the 69 sites dated, which includes information oldest figural sculptures in sub-Saharan Africa. on excavations, finds and chronological classification (Table 3). Since the pottery plays an important role in More than 60 years have passed since this first defining chronological phases, a summary of the results age estimate. The excavations by B. Fagg, A. Fagg, of the pottery analysis is given. Finally, a chronology R. Soper, and J. Jemkur (Fagg 1968, 1990; Fagg A. of the Nok Culture with three absolute-chronological 1972, 2014; Jemkur 1992, 2014) in the 1960s and 1970s phases is established. Before turning to the data of the added absolute dates to this tentative placement into Frankfurt Nok project, the absolute dates obtained by the first millennium BC, which put the duration of the past research are reviewed. Nok Culture between 500 BC and 200 AD (Fagg 1962: 445). This age estimate remained largely unchanged until 2005, even if a beginning of the Nok Culture in Absolute dates obtained in the 20th century the early first millennium BC was suggested some years earlier (Boullier et al. 2002/2003). Early radiocarbon dates (1950s to 1970s) After several decades, in which Nok sites were loot- Shortly after geological evidence placed the age of the ed and destroyed on a large scale, archaeologists from Nok Culture into the second half of the first millen- Goethe University Frankfurt in 2005 restarted scientific nium BC, the radiocarbon method became available for investigations (Breunig & Rupp 2010). Between 2005 archaeologists. In 1951, B. Fagg submitted wood and and 2008 the archaeological potential of Nok Culture charcoal samples from the geological layers containing Nok material as well as from the clay layer above the archaeological horizon to the Geochronometric Labora- 1 “BC/AD” reflects calendar years, for both luminescence and cali- tory at Yale University, New Haven, USA. It took six brated radiocarbon dates. It should, however, be kept in mind that years until the first results were published (Barendsen in the older literature radiocarbon dates were cited uncalibrated, et al. 1957: 916–918), mainly due to complications simply converted into calendar years using 1950 as reference year. in the laboratories through contaminations caused by In this paper, OxCal 4.2, IntCal13 (Bronk Ramsey 2009; Reimer et al. 2013) is used for calibration. If not mentioned otherwise, the long-range effects from fall-out after nuclear tests the time range is shown with 2-sigma probability (95.4 %). (Fagg 1959: 291). 258 Journal of African Archaeology Vol. 14 (3) Special Issue, 2016 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 12:46:22PM via free access A Chronology of the Central Nigerian Nok Culture Figure 1. Map showing all sites for which absolute dates were obtained (n=69), separated into Nok sites (red), pre-Nok sites (yellow) and post-Nok sites (blue). Most sites are located in the key study area (white box) around the project’s research station in Janjala village. Sites further away are shown in the locator map (top left). The results confirmed the initial age estimate. The 2541±104 bp to 2042±126 bp (Burleigh et al. 1977: undisturbed layer of dark grey clay overlying the main 154–155; Calvocoressi & David 1979: 10; Boullier figurine horizon at the Main Paddock tin mine at Nok et al.