Nok culture stuns Germany - Culture and Tourism

    

FINDINGS of a collaborative archaeological research on ancient Nok clay and metal sculptures between Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) and Goethe University, Frankfurt were objects of an exhibition at the Liebieghaus Museum, Frankfurt, recently.

Nok culture, through its unique sculptures, came to global knowledge when accidental discoveries of exquisite terracotta sculptures were made during tin mining operations around 1928. The findings were then named after the first site where they were discovered.

However, Nok archaeological sites became victims of unprecedented looting especially in the 1990s when some sculptures were illegally exported to Europe and the United States. It was the need to preserve this unique sculptural heritage and stem the looting that informed the collaboration between the NCMM and the Department of African Archaeology and Archaeobotany of Goethe University, Frankfurt.

The collaboration which commenced in 2005 involved Professor Peter Breunig and his team who had earlier been working in the Chad Basin in partnership with the University of Maiduguri and NCMM, a collaboration that led to the excavation of 8000 year old Dufuna Canoe.
Surveys were conducted for initial operations around Nok and major successful excavations were carried out at Agwan KURA in 2007 and Garaje Kagoro in 2008. The same year, full operations shifted to Kagarko Local Government where less disturbed sites were encountered and another round of successful excavations were conducted in Jan Ruwa, Kurmin Uwa, Pantaki and Tsaunin-Bakka.  The finds of these various efforts were offered to the German public in a rare exhibition of Nok sculpture.
 In his address at the opening at the Liebieghaus Museum in Frankfurt, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Edem Duke described the exhibition as historic and momentous for Nigeria as the event has, once again shown the rest of the world that the country has a lot to offer in heritage protection and propagation.