The Nok culture prospered thanks to iron-smelting technology which permitted the manufacture of iron tools. C. Elliott describes how the culture they founded may have a deep effect upon the ancient history of Africa.Nigeria, the most populous of modern African states, and potentially the strongest, also possesses richer evidence of its artistic past than any other section of the continent south of the Sahara.The most ancient of the Nigerian cultures known to us is also that about which least knowledge has been available. Animals such as elephants, ticks, bats, monkeys, and snakes are also common. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox.Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. and mysteriously vanished around 500 AD in the region of West Africa. The culture was named Nok after the place the first artifacts were found. Dates from 2500-800 B.P (500 BC to 200 AD). The culture’s social system is thought to have been highly advanced. This region lies in Central Nigeria. The eyes are D-shaped with perforated pupils and are delineated with simple lines. It was the ending of the 15th century European explorers and traders began their lucrative slave trade with the Yoruba and Benin peoples. These figures were first encountered in tin mines by Colonel J. Dent Young in 1928 and were classified as Nok by Bernard Fagg in 1943. Nok refers to the culture associated with a one hundred square kilometer area in central Nigeria where thousands of terracotta figures were found. Mouths protrude outwards, are pierced in the center, and sometimes lips are parted. These were mostly fragmentary sculptures, buried under some 8 metres (26 ft) of sand and earth, which were tossed up during local mining operations for tin in the first half of the 20th century CE. Located east of the Niger River and north of the Benue River in what is today northern and central Nigeria, the Nok culture is named after the town where the first artefacts were discovered. Nok art refers to huge human, animal, and other figures made out of terracotta pottery, made by the Nok culture and found throughout Nigeria. Nok farmers were able to grow cereals like sorghum and such vegetables as pumpkins (which were represented in terracotta). The terracottas represent the earliest sculptural art in West Africa and were made between 900 B.C.E. Durable iron tools such as hoes, hand-axes and cleavers were put to good use to boost agricultural efficiency. The history of the country goes back to 500 BC when the Nok people were the inhabitants. to the turn of the Common Era) (Franke and Breunig 2014).