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The Nok
The Nok artifacts included sculptures of animals and people made of terra cotta, or fired clay. The complex Nok sculptures were probably based on woodcarvings, but any wooden artifacts would have disintegrated long ago in the humid climate of West Africa. This leads archaeologists to believe that the Nok civilization may have been much older than even the oldest artifact. The Nok discovered that by heating certain rocks they were able to “smelt” iron. Iron is very malleable, so it can be reshaped to make weapons and plows. Most ancient cultures discovered copper and bronze before iron, but the Nok apparently moved directly from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. | ||
To cite this page: |
In
1928, archaeologists unearthed artifacts from an amazing culture that
flourished from about 500BC to AD200.
The archaeologists referred to the ancient culture as the Nok, the name
of a modern Nigeri
an
village where they made their discovery.