Tradition
Nok Terracotta
Nigeria · 500 BCE – 200 CE
Africa's oldest known sculpture. Haunting, powerful, mysterious.
In the 1940s, tin miners in Nigeria began finding ancient terracotta heads—and uncovered a civilization lost for 2,000 years.
The Nok culture produced Sub-Saharan Africa's oldest known figurative sculpture. These terracotta heads and figures, dating from 500 BCE to 200 CE, show remarkable sophistication: stylized features, elaborate hairstyles, detailed jewelry. The eyes are distinctive—triangular or semicircular, pierced through. We know almost nothing about the people who made them. Nok terracottas remind us how much African artistic history remains unknown.
What artistic traditions have been lost or remain undiscovered?
Techniques
- Hand building
- Terracotta
- Figurative sculpture
- Surface texturing