The Nok Culture of Central Nigeria is an enigmatic and unstudied entity. It represents the earliest sculptural art of sub-saharan African as well as the beginning of iron metallurgy. Nothing else is known.

The sites of the Nok Culture are distributed over an area of 5OOx300 km [see map]. The culture was named after the first terracotta figurine found in 1928 by tin miners in the village of Nok. Except for these terracottas dating from about 5OO BC to AD 200, little is known. So far, only three sites [Taruga, Katsina Ala, Tsamun Dukiya] have been excavated.

NOK CULTURE DISCOVERY
In the 1880's traders of the Royal Niger Company who had taken their goods in land to the Benue Valley area reported to the company headquarters that they were being offered tin ingots in exchange. By the turn of the century, pioneering expeditions had in 1902 located on the Jos Plateau the source. By 1909 the potential value of the tin became more widely known and many companies and syndicates were formed to exploit the tin fields. These operations often led to other discoveries apart from the ore, of such discoveries made during the. mining operations was that of the evidence of an early iron age population whose material remains have come to be known as the Nok Culture after the village where they were first found, these remains mostly comprise terracotta figurines Nok is a village in Jaba Local Government area of Kaduna State

EARLY FINDS OF THE NOK CULTURE
The first discovery was made at Nok in 1928. This terracotta figurine head of a Monkey was found from the tin bearing gravels out of which it was washed during mining operations. This was later taken to the mines museum in Jos out of curiosity by Colonel J. D. Young. This was to remain unique until 1943 when another discovery of a terracotta head was made some sixty five kilometers south - east Nok in old Jama’a at tsauni, This was however, shown to Mr. Bernard Fagg who was later appointed Government archaeologist. Mr. Fagg visited the mining operations in the Nok valley in 1944 and realized on inspection that a lot of archaeological material was being excavated with the tinstone and being lost. With the co-operation of the mine owners and manager, workers in the minefield were alerted and asked to report any pottery or other artifacts which might emerge. A large number of the figurines and the other archaeological objects were. rescued in this way and this later formed the basis of the Jos Museum collection. The Museum was opened in 1952 to serve as an archaeological research museum and housing all the Nok materials. The Figurine finds from the Nok valley continued to grow in number after 1944 when Bernard Fagg first visited the area. A rest house was later established at Nok from which Mr. Fagg frequented the valley and an archaeological reserve covering an area of four hectres was created in the area for future Research. The area is presently housing the Nok national museum.

THE NOK CULTURE AREA
The concentration is greatest around Nok and old Jama'a, which-have contributed over half of all the figurines recovered. The distribution stretches outwards from Nok in all directions. It reaches Katsina Ala in the South-east, including Ankiring, Old Jama'a, Tare and Wnamba. Udegi is directly south, while Bwari, Karu, Samban, Shere Koro and Taruaga lie to the South-West. West and North -West are Kuchamfa, Kutofo and Kagara. Kachia is considered to be the Northern most point. Amban and Maitumbi are in the east. The Maitumbi figurine is most easterly and so far the only one discovered on the Jos Plateau itself.

OTHER FINDS OF THE NOK CULTURE
In view of the acidic nature of the soils within the Nok Culture area, material found associated-with the figurines in the alluvial deposits was almost exclusively in organic. These included polished stone axes and adzes. Some are very small and may have been meant for use in wood carving before the introduction of iron in the area. The large ones were probably hoes which were used in cultivating the swampy river banks. Grindstone are also present, suggestive of the use of vegetable food Also included within the deposits were iron axe blades, fried clay from furnaces and tuyere fragments. Semi - carbonized wood also survived in the alluvial deposits. Specimens of this carbonized wood later produced the first radio carbon dates for the Nok deposits of between 925 BC± 70 and AD 200 ± 50.