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Nok文化的重要方面。调查、发掘和综合资料分析在年代、聚落形态与结构、生存与环境、铁冶金、物质文化、分布区域等方面做出了重要贡献。长达1500年的诺克文化始于公元前1500年左右，是石器时代晚期的农业综合体，珍珠粟是最重要的作物。这些复杂的兵马俑雕塑在考古社区之外也为Nok文化所知，它们首次出现在公元前900年左右，通常出现在靠近坟墓特征的沉积物中。因此，兵马俑的功能与埋葬和殡葬仪式有关。最早的诺克炼铁炉要晚几个世纪；它们并不像之前认为的那样与陶俑有短暂的联系。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了。随着全面的挖掘，大量的数据收集，现代科学方法的使用，大量的C14日期，以及广泛的研究对象，诺克文化是西非研究最好的考古建筑群之一。挖掘工作已经完成，项目最后三年的重点是关于聚落模式（WP 4）、诺克遗址的结构和年代（WP 1-3）和物质文化（WP 5-7）的总结分析和出版物，以及所有项目数据的分析、组织、长期存储和公开可用性。考古植物学团队的主要目标是建立一个从公元前1500年左右的诺克文化开始到公元一世纪的生存和景观变化模型。通过在陶器碎片中使用植物宏观遗骸和化学残留物分析，我们将研究早期Nok定居者对新的，更湿润的环境的适应（WP 8），中期Nok时期（WP 9）的潜在景观退化及其对公元前400年之后Nok文化衰落的作用（WP 9），以及公元1世纪Nok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).