What is Nok culture?
{{coord|9|30|N|8|0|E|display=title}} [[File:Verbreitung Nok-Kultur-en.png|thumb|The area where the Nok culture could be found, on a map of Nigeria]] [[File:Nok sculpture Louvre 70-1998-11-1.jpg|thumb|right|Nok sculpture, terracotta, [[Louvre]]]] The '''Nok culture''' was an ancient [[civilisation]] in what is now [[Nigeria]]. It appeared around 1000 BC and vanished around 300 CE. This civilisation lived in northern and central Nigeria. Its social system is thought to have been very advanced for its time. The Nok are considered to be the earliest producers of life-sized [[Terracotta]] [[sculpture]]s in [[sub-Saharan Africa]]. It has been suggested that the Nok culture eventually evolved into the [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]].<ref>Chambers Encyclopaedia New Revised Edition, vol. 10, p 40, International Learning Systems Corporation Ltd London</ref><ref>The New Universal Library, vol. 14, p 456. The Caxton Publishing Company London</ref> The use of [[iron]], in [[smelting]] and [[forging]] tools, appears in the Nok culture at least by 550 BC and possibly earlier.<ref>Jared Diamond, 'Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies' (1997) Chapter 19</ref><ref>Duncan E. Miller and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Early Metal Working in Sub Saharan Africa' ''Journal of African History'' 35 (1994) 1-36</ref><ref>Minze Stuiver and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa' ''Current Anthropology'' 1968. Tylecote 1975 (see below)</ref> ==References== {{commons category|Nok culture}} {{reflist}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Nok Culture}} [[Category:1st millennium BC]] [[Category:History of Nigeria]] [[Category:Nigerian culture]] [[Category:Ancient history by country]] {{hist-stub}}