Nok terracottas
Clay heads and figures with triangular eyes — the oldest large sculpture in sub-Saharan Africa
How to recognise it
- Triangular eyes with pierced pupils
- Elaborate coiffures of buns and rolls
- Head oversized, about a third of the figure
- Beads and bracelets on the figures
- Reddish fired clay
Why it emerged
Communities on the Jos Plateau were among Africa's first iron smelters, gaining surplus and time for craft. The figures were probably set up at burial and ritual sites.
Examples
Nok village findsc. 500 BCA head found by tin miners in 1928 that gave the whole culture its nameJemaa Headc. 500 BCNear life-size; in 1943 Bernard Fagg used it to define the Nok styleTaruga terracottasc. 400 BCFound beside iron furnaces — tying the sculpture to early smeltingNok seated figurec. 200 BCA figure hugging its knees — proof Nok made full bodies, not just headsMeanwhile elsewhere
- Mesopotamian art Middle East
- Ancient Egyptian art Africa
- Shang and Zhou bronzes Asia
- Olmec art Americas
- Ancient Greek art: Archaic and Classical Europe
- Scythian animal style Eastern Europe & Russia
- Hellenistic art Europe
- Ancient Roman art Europe
- Gandhara art Asia
- Classic Maya art Americas