Development of complex societies in sub-Saharan Africa: The Nigerian Nok Culture

这个长期项目，设计了12年，自2009年以来一直在研究尼日利亚诺克文化的重要方面。调查、发掘和全面的资料分析在年代学、聚落形态和结构、生存和环境、铁冶金、物质文化和分布区域等方面都作出了相当大的贡献。1500年之久的诺克文化开始于公元前1500年左右，是石器时代后期的农业综合体，珍珠小米是最重要的作物。诺克文化在考古界之外也以其复杂的兵马俑雕塑而闻名，首次出现在公元前900年左右-通常位于靠近坟墓特征的沉积物中。因此，兵马俑的功能与埋葬和丧葬仪式有关。第一个诺克炼铁炉的日期是几个世纪之后;它们并不像以前认为的那样与兵马俑有时间上的联系。诺克文化的衰落始于公元前400年左右;几个世纪后，诺克兵马俑和诺克陶器完全消失。由于全面的发掘，收集的大量数据，使用的现代科学方法，大量的C14日期，以及大量的研究主题，诺克文化是西非调查最好的考古遗址之一。在项目的最后三个年度，项目的重点是对定居模式（WP 4）、诺克遗址的结构和年代（WP 1-3）以及物质文化（WP 5-7）进行总结分析和出版，并对所有项目数据进行分析、组织、长期储存和公开提供。考古植物学团队的主要目标是开发一个模型，从公元前1500年左右的诺克文化开始，直到公元一世纪的生存和景观变化。通过对陶器碎片中的植物学残留物和化学残留物的分析，我们将研究早期诺克定居者对一个新的、更潮湿的环境（WP 8）的适应，以及中期诺克时期潜在的景观退化（公元前900-400年）及其对公元前400年后诺克文化衰落的作用（WP 9），在公元一世纪诺克文化结束后的创新（WP 10）。

This long-term project, designed for 12 years, has been researching significant aspects of the Nigerian Nok Culture since 2009. Surveys, excavations and comprehensive data analyses have made considerable contributions with respect to chronology, settlement pattern and structure, subsistence and environment, iron metallurgy, material culture, and distribution area. The 1500-year long Nok Culture begins around 1500 BCE as a Later Stone Age farming complex, with pearl millet being the most important crop. The sophisticated terracotta sculptures, for which the Nok Culture is also known outside of the archaeological community, first appear around 900 BCE – often in deposits in close proximity to grave features. Thus, the terracottas’ function is connected with burial and mortuary rituals. The first Nok iron-smelting furnaces date some centuries later; they are not – as previously thought – temporally connected with the terracotta figurines. The Nok Culture’s decline begins around 400 BCE; some centuries later Nok terracotta and Nok pottery disappear completely. With the comprehensive excavations, the large amount of collected data, the modern scientific methods used, the high number of C14 dates, and the large range of subjects researched, the Nok Culture is among the best-investigated archaeological complexes in West Africa. Excavations are completed, the focus of the final three project years is on the concluding analyses and publications with regard to settlement pattern (WP 4), structure and chronology of Nok sites (WP 1-3) and the material culture (WP 5-7), and on the analysis, organization, long-term storage, and public availability of all project data. The major objective of the archaeobotanical team is to develop a model for subsistence and landscape change from the beginning of the Nok Culture around 1500 BCE until the first centuries CE. By using botanical macro-remains and chemical residue analysis in potsherds we will study the adaptations of the Early Nok settlers to a new, more humid environment (WP 8), the potential landscape degradation in the Middle Nok period (900-400 BCE) and its role for the decline of the Nok Culture after 400 BCE (WP 9), and innovations after the end of the Nok Culture in the first centuries CE (WP 10).