Nok African Culture Ceramic Heads

The natural proportion for humans is one to seven.
Nok african culture ceramic heads. Nok was a complex society with permanent settlements and centers for farming and manufacturing but we are still left guessing who the nok were how. Images of hippopotamuses elephants giraffes antelopes and other animals from saharan rock art suggest that. The fired clay or terracotta sculptures range in size from small pendant to life size figures. Famous for the distinctive terracotta sculptures of human heads and figures nok was the first known culture in west africa to produce such art and perhaps the first sub saharan culture to perfect iron smelting.
The heads of nok terracottas are invariably proportionally large relative to the bodies and while not enough is known of nok culture to explain this apparent imbalance it is interesting to note that a similar emphasis of the head in later african art traditions often signifies respect for intelligence. It is common for the head of a figure to be separated from the body. Some of the earliest examples of sophisticated sculpture in sub saharan africa come from the nok culture. Nok heads are shown to be consistent with the african proportion the head being one third the size of the body.
B c a broken off hand is raised to the top of the head a fairly commonly seen gesture of unknown significance in nok culture and the back of the head is unfinished. The earliest known sculpture of large size in the sudan is the ceramic art of the nok culture. The rest of the figure may have been attached to a pot. The yoruba cast bronze head of the oni displays the qualities of.
Read more on this topic. May 30 2015 lost culture of nigeria. See more ideas about african art african africa. A nok head made of terra cotta found near jemaa nigeria.
Which african culture is known principally for its large ceramic heads. We do not know what the people called themselves so the culture was named after the town of nok where the first object was found. Current research suggests it predated the founding of rome by some 500 years. It is believed based on large head and leg fragments that the largest nok figure was about 120 cm tall.
This head has been dated by thermoluminescence to the latter part of the 4th century b c e. The nok culture is an early iron age population whose material remains are named after the ham village of nok in kaduna state of nigeria where their terracotta sculptures were first discovered in 1928.