A Sokoto terracotta head, northwestern Nigeria, c. 4th century BC.

A Sokoto terracotta head, northwestern Nigeria, c. 4th century BC. 

“Thermoluminescence (TL) tested by Francine Maurer (Alliance Science Art).” Photographed by Ethan Rider.  

“Sokoto State is in northwest Nigeria in the Niger River Valley [the Sokoto River being a tributary of the Niger River], at the confluence of ancient trade routes. Little is known of the ancient culture, as there has been no controlled archaeological investigation. Bayard Rustin, the civil rights leader of the 1950s and 1960s who originally collected most of the Yale University Art Gallery’s ancient terracotta figures in Nigeria, reported that “the Sokoto and Katsina pieces were found in large man-made mounds.” From scientific dating, the culture appears roughly contemporary with Nok to the south, suggesting a period from 500 b.c.e. to 200 c.e. Characteristic of Sokoto features are heavy eyebrows and beards, the latter sometimes braided or bound. Generally these figures are fragmentary, with only the bust remaining, and the heads are often life-sized or even larger than life. How large the full figures would have been is difficult to say - presumably the common West African proportion of one to three or four (the relation of the head to the body) would have prevailed, but even if this is the case, many of these full figures would have been enormous.

[…]

The works of these three areas [Nok, Sokoto, and Katsina], while suggesting distinct polities, also bear many similarities. Nok, Sokoto, and Katsina all produced very large, hollow, thin-walled, low-fired, terracotta human sculptures in similar postures and bearing like ornamentation, many with heads close to life-sized. The medium used throughout is earthenware mixed with quartz and mica for tenacity, surfaced with a slip of ocher or mica schist and burnished with a smooth pebble to achieve a fine finish. Quite a few sculptures from each of these groups share stylistic similarities. We have a vague idea of the limits of the Nok geographical area, but we have very little idea about ancient Sokoto and Katsina, where no collection data has been recorded. The cultures probably overlapped geographically, at least in part, and certainly were known to each other at particular times.”

-“Ancient Terracotta Figures from Northern Nigeria”, by Frederick John Lamp