Nok village is located in Kaduna State. It is about 160 kilometres northeast of Baro. The Nok civilisation was discovered in 1943 due to tin mining that was happening in the area and earned its name due to the Nok civilisation that used to inhabit the area from around 500 BC. Mysteriously the people of the village vanished in about 200 AD.
These people were known for their extremely advanced social system and were the earliest producers of life-sized Terracotta in the Sub-Sahara. Hugely historical, archaeologists have found human skeletons, stone tools and rock paintings around this area, not to mention the main act. The inhabitants of what is now called Nok Village, were known to make some of the oldest and culturally intriguing sculptures found in Africa.
This led to discoveries that the ancient culture of Nok has been around for some 2500 years. When strolling through the village your senses will be delighted to rediscover an amazing group of people culturally and socially.
Not much is known about the purposes of these popular sculptures but some theories have suggested they were used as charms to prevent crop failure, illness and infertility.
You'll really feel as if you've had the best history lesson of your life. Weapons of war, terracotta heads of man and animals are abundant as you realise your dream is actually a reality. The Nok culture which dates back over 2,500 years old is no doubt one of the greatest and best known cultures in the world.
Although it was Benard Fagg an archeologist who originally began the collection of the Nok Terracotta heads discovered by tin miners in 1943 at the Nok site, when carbon-dated, these masterpieces made of clay were discovered to have been created around 500 BC. Many new findings however indicate that some of the works can be dated much earlier than this.
What makes Nok terracotta enigmatic is because of the fact that the three hollows represent eyes and mouth without ears which continue to dumbfound curators all over the world. At the entrance of the village are artworks depicting the creativity of a culture beyond human imagination.
Site of the famous Nok terracotta Within the Nok village is an excavation site originally gored by tin miners in 1943. It is in the process of mining tin in this historic site that the miners discovered the ancient terracotta works. Being a highly superstitious people, they believed that these excavated clay heads were harbingers of bad luck and evil and went on to destroy them.
This trend continues until information got to Benard Fagg a colonial archaeologist working in Northern Nigeria at the time, who quickly arranged for the transfer and preservation of the remaining excavated works. His later carbon-dating of the finds, revealed that the works were created around the year 500BC.
Because of the significance of this find and the Project, Benard Fagg decided to make his home in the area and ended up with a large collection of the Nok terracotta, some of which he deposited at the newly created Department of Antiquity in Jos.
The Nok people History of the Nok culture is history of a people who left a village called Ham in Egypt many millennia ago. On arriving at this virgin land, according to legend, they discovered that the land is bordered by impenetrable mountains and forests infested with deadly reptiles and loose sand dunes that would easily swallow the unwary and to keep invaders at bay.
On finding this land, the people took shelter in the caves and the natural rock shelters abound in the new settlement.
This provided them shelter from warring tribes around the area until the European adventure and subsequent pacification that followed their coming, which brought the period of inter-communal warfare to an end. Though secluded from others by the mountains, the Nok people over time developed a system of administration that ensured the maintenance of law and order in their place of abode.
They built what became known as the city of Nok at the foot of the hills. The basic understanding of the Nok culture can be glanced through their judicial system or mode of inheritance.
It is a known fact that the Nok's judicial system pre-dates the western judicial system. The Nok people created classes of courts used in adjudicating on cases from minor to criminal ones.
There are the traditional open courts, area courts, high courts and the appeal courts. According to Mang Gang Chai, the curator of Nok antiquity, these courts were used in investigating and to uncover the truth in both minor and major crimes.
The people strongly believe that every crime attracts a curse which was capable of destroying whole family and must be uncovered to avoid the consequences.
Adjudicating cases among the Noks There are two major cases handled by the courts, one bothering on minor family disputes, stealing, false allegation among others and the other on major crimes like murder, adultery and others considered grievous. When crimes are committed, suspects are brought to the open court for traditional oath taking.
The court is presided over by the Chief Priest who sits on a high rock chair. Beside him is another rock table surrounded by the various clan heads who sits in semi-circular arrangement as the trial go on. At the centre of the court are two stone monoliths representing the gods of the land (Male and Female), the larger one being the female and the smaller one the male.
In taking the oath the suspect stands between the two monoliths directly facing the sun, the most supreme god called Nom. The suspect then swears to tell the truth. Cases that cannot be resolved in the open court are taken to the high court which sits within an enclosed shrine.
Traditionally, women do not take the oath but a male relative can take the oath on her behalf in cases referred to the high court which is located inside the shrine, and such a relative must have attained the statutory age of 18 and above and duly initiated into the shrine cult.
The same high priest presides over proceedings at the high court and any one found guilty is fined goats and chicken for sacrifice to the gods and local wine for the chief priest.
After a case of crime is successfully resolved, the town declares a day of celebration on which the people thank the gods for their graces in successfully resolving the issue and averting doom for the people. Rite of inheritance This is another sacred tradition of the Nok people.
According to legend, the initiated members of the communal cult are believed to resurrect after death in form of masquerade on an appointed day at the cave located at the outskirt of the town, to give directives to the last wish to family members and relatives in relation to his estate.
On the appointed day, virgin girls are made to grind millet and along with members of the deceased family members carry same to the cave (also known as the Supreme Court), singing and dancing as they prepare to meet their dead.
Upon their approach, the dead man is believed to spring up in the form of a masquerade and together they dance to the village square.
Here, he issues out instruction to his family members on how to carry on in his absence. If he had a wife, he tells her on that occasion who among his male family member will inherit her provided she wishes to not to remarry outside the family.
