Information is lacking from Nigeria's "silent millennium"…

Information is lacking from Nigeria's "silent millennium" (first millennium CE) that follows the Nok ascendancy, apart from evidence of iron smelting on Dala Hill in Kano from about 600 to 700.

It is assumed, however, that trade linking the Niger region with North Africa plays a key role in the continuing development of the area.

Certainly by the beginning of the second millennium CE, there is an active trade along a north- south axis from North Africa through the Sahara to the forest, with the savanna people acting as intermediaries in exchanges that involve  slaves, ivory, salt, glass beads, coral, cloth, weapons, brass rods, and other goods.