The Nok culture appears in Nigeria around 1000 BCE and mysteriously vanishes around CE 500 in West African regioj of region Northern and Central Nigeria.

Its social system is thought to have been highly advanced.

The Nok culture was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized terra cotta.

It has been suggested that the Nok civilization eventually evolved into the later Yoruba civilization of Ife based on similarities seen in the artwork from these two cultures.

The refinement of this culture is attested to by the image of a Nok dignitary at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

The dignitary is portrayed wearing a "shepherds crook" affixed with an elastic material to the right arm.

The dignitary is also portrayed sitting with flared nostrils, and an open mouth suggesting performance.

other images show figures on horseback, indicating Nok culture had tamed the horse.Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in Nok culture in Africa at least by 550 BCE and more probably in the middle of the second millennium BCE (between 1400 BCE and 1600 BCE depending on references).