The Nok Culture: Excavations at Taruga - Research Paper Example

The Nok Culture According to Fagg (21-30), the Nok culture emerged in Nigeria about 1000 B.C. and mysteriously disappeared about 500 AD in the areas of West Africa. This area lies in Central Nigeria. The culture’s social network is believed to have exceedingly enhanced. The Nok culture was regarded to be the earliest sub-Saharan creator of life-sized Terracotta. It is proposed that the community grew into the later Yoruba Kingdom of life. Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, emerges in Nok culture in Africa at least by 550 BC and more likely in the middle of the second millennium BC, between 1400 BC and 1600 BC. Nok sculptures also show animals and humans. Their purpose is yet unknown, because scientific fieldwork is still not available. Essentially, the terracotta is preserved in the variety of littered pieces. That is why Nok art is famous presently just for the heads, both male and female, whose hairstyles are especially comprehensive and advanced. The sculptures are in remains since the discoveries are normally made from alluvial mud, in landscape made by the attrition of water. The terracotta sculptures established there are secreted, rolled, polished and fragmented. Hardly are the works of great size preserved intact making the, exceedingly prized on the global art market. The terracotta figurines are hallow, coil produced, almost life sized human heads and torso shown with exceedingly stylized aspects, adequate jewellery, and different stances. Numerous artifacts have been established depicting an assortment of physical ailments, including incapacitating illness and facial paralysis. The Nok culture of central Nigeria is famous for its terracotta sculptures and denotes the first sculptural in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, Nok plays a well know functions in the appearance of iron technology, offering some of the most primitive proof of iron smelting in West Africa about 500 BC as illustrated by excavations in Taruga. In comparison to its scientific significance, Nok remained a mystery for a long time, since few archaeological fieldwork has been committed to the Nok culture, and previously, little less is known about the creators of those remarkable works of art. In reality, Taruga is better described as an iron-smelting site, as huge figure of iron-smelting furnaces have been revealed but no abode has been found with surety. Test excavations have been conducted, which have long established. The position of many iron-smelting furnaces, some of which have been excavated have been found. It has also proved likely, as a consequent of the work at Taruga, to acquire a clearer perception of the pottery connected with the sculptures than has until now been likely from the alluvial sites. No particular stone tools have been identified at Taruga, so that there in any case it appears the Nok culture was totally iron-using. The iron smelting furnaces at Taruga are at the time the most primitive known in sub-Saharan Africa. The only location where a fulfilling interface has been discovered between a pre-metal and a metal using phase of technology is at Daima. In the farthest north-eastern horizon of Nigeria (Fagg 41-50). In 1943, an archeologist based in the United Kingdom Bernard Fagg, traveled across central Nigeria looking for artifacts of any known ancient African civilization, and collected virtually 200 terracottas through buying, persuasion, and his own excavations. Soil examination from the sites where the artifacts were discovered dated them about 500 B.C. This appeared unlikely since the form of advanced communities that would have created such works were not thought to have existed in West Africa that early. However, when Fagg subjected plant content identified embedded in the terracotta to the then new method of radiocarbon dating, the dates varied from 440 B.C. to A.D. On the other hand, a scarecrow head was excavated and dated to about 500 B.C. utilizing a procedure known as thermoluminescence that measures the time since baked clay was fired. Taruga village is a chief marker of an advanced civilization, advanced art and organized worship, metal smelting, and adequate populace to endorse these activities. Nevertheless, the Nok culture did not emerge in isolation. The Nok culture had the virtually started earlier and survived longer than there is proof for at the moment. In essence, it was a product of a mature customs, with the likelihood of a long precursor history, of which as yet, not trace has been established. The Nok flourished for longer than recent research has apparently realized. They may have been the earliest sophisticated civilization in West Africa, existing from at least 900 B.C. to around 200 A.D. Their terracottas are now some of the most iconic prehistoric things from Africa (Fagg 27-30). According to the current state of research, it appears that the Nok culture emerged suddenly about the middle of the 1st millennium BC and disappeared less than a millennium latter similarly rapidly. The query what was before the Nok or what followed Nok is hitherto not certainly demanded in publications. Nevertheless, it is hard to think that the impressive illustration of the Nok art and the appearing sophistication of the connected settlements did not go through any standard stage of development. Residuals of such a period were likely located in small area situated in the center of the studied field. Here, sculptures that vary from the traditional terracotta figurines of the Nok culture because of a rather makeshift styling. Nevertheless, some traits like the outline of the eyes, a noticeable execution of the hairstyle or the crude inert temper of the clay evidently points to a connection. Whether this art pushes the foundation of the Nok culture further in time or marks the vanishing of the custom is presently a subject of curious concern (Fagg 41-50). Notwithstanding the thematic form, Nok terracotta has some traits that continue over hundred of square millions and centuries of creation. Figurines virtually depict large-headed people with almond-shaped eyes and parted lips. These sculptures have impressive headdresses or hairstyles, which may suggest high social standing. A general posture, and one much copied by forgers, depicts a man sitting with his arms lying on his knees, staring outward. Carbon dating on charcoal that has been collected from Nok iron smelter at a place called Intini produced a date between 519 and 410 B.C., indicating that iron technology was set up previously than earlier academics, including Fagg, had acknowledged. These may not be the first smelters in sub-Saharan Africa, nevertheless. Some archaeologists have situated proof of iron-smelting in the Termit Hills of Niger from as early as 1400 B.C., nevertheless critics state that the wood used for dating could have been centuries old, a challenge that faces carbon dating. Thus, as a result of this survey the isolation of a time when iron and stone tools coexisted has been established. In essence, in the Nok community, iron tools replaced stone tools just after the technology was advancing enough to distribute adequate amounts of iron. The Nok is a virtually important culture upon which to test this presumption (Fagg 27-30). On the other hand, ancient West African shifted from stone tools directly to iron implements, without an overriding copper age. That is a step that few other parts of the world seem to have made. Copper implements and furnaces have been discovered by archaeologists dating from 800 to 200 B.C. Its this evolution from Paleolithic Period to Iron Age that has mystified scholars since Western Europe and North Africa cultures shifted into iron after first smelting copper for a millennium or so. Iron technology was likely brought across the Sahara by travelers from North Africa. Nevertheless, archaeologists have focused their attention on the likelihood that West Africans developed iron-working technology independently, possibly beginning with the Nok (Fagg 41-50). For a very long time, research has been primarily an issue of art historian. However, the sociocultural perspective of art remains uncertain, as long as from a community little else is understood. It is unthinkable that the magnificent terracottas of the Nok culture were produced in huge amounts from a backward society (Fagg 27-30). One might rather wonder that the Nok terracottas belong to a previous African civilization whose other residues are still hidden in the ground. In this regard, previous activities in finding Nok settlements and terracotta figurines in predominantly evidence amounted to motivating explorations. As anticipated, the former short examination has proved the existence of Nok communities. These societies have substantial architectural residues pointing to a specified type of comprehensive teamwork. Nok culture merits far ranging archaeological survey. Nevertheless, considerable excavations need complicated logistics, because the location’s accessibility in most situation is a difficulty. On the other end, more surveys will persist to concentrate on the question of the economic and environmental state of the Nok culture. Important quantities of information on the terracotta have been collected, but the mystery of its purpose remains unsolved. Overall, the presence of terracotta on the location shows that it was part of daily life, especially the cautious personal designs upon the terracotta sculptures; allude at the display of actual life traits. For instance, ailments are depicted, such as a head with a tumor on the left cheek. The Nok culture provides us with considerable understanding of the historical development of the Paleolithic period (Fagg 41-50). Work Cited Fagg, Bernard. 1968. The Nok Culture: Excavations at Taruga. The West African Archaeological Newsletter 10.4 (2007): 27-30. Fagg, Bernard. Recent work in West Africa: New light on the Nok Culture. World Archaeology 1.1 (2000) 41-50. Read More