NOK ART: THE EARLIEST SCULPTURAL ART IN WEST AFRICA.

Nok art is found in Northern Nigeria. It is the oldest known example of terracotta sculpture in Africa, South of Sahara, and dates as far back as 500BB to 200AD.

The figures are made out of clay and are nearly life sizes. Some stylistic characters of Nok Art are the cylindrical heads, flared nostrils, pierced eyes, nose, mouth and ears, eyes set back, often low and small.

Nok Art fragments have been discovered through out what is today Nigeria, including states of Plateau, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Niger, Kwara and Koji, as well as Federal Capital Territory (Abuja).

The Nok Art culture communities were agriculturist who practiced iron smelting and traded it for quartz nose some iron implements.

Nok Art was first brought to light in the 1940s, when archaeologist Bernard Fagg learned that tin miners had encountered examples of animal ans human sculptures 25ft deep in the mining sites.

Other artefacts found at Nok Culture sites include beads, palm kernels, stone tools, pottery, terracotta objects, ground stone and iron axes among others.