Three thousand years ago, a culture flourished on the Jos Plateau in what is now Nigeria. It produced the oldest works of West African sculpture of which we are aware, and flourished for centuries – possibly as long as a millennium. But it left behind nothing but mysterious statues and a few tantalizing potsherds and tools.
In this timeline, it will leave much more.
You may have figured, from the title of the thread, that I’m referring to what we know as the Nok culture, although that certainly wasn’t their name for themselves. I am… and I’m not. The culture that will arise in this timeline will have many similarities to the Nok, including their artistic and (almost certainly) religious sensibility. But it will arise earlier, and just as importantly, it will make the transition from the Neolithic to the Iron Age considerably sooner.
How? With a nearly clean slate to work on, there are ways. If I were an archaeologist, the extreme gaps in our knowledge of the Nok would be my despair – but as a storyteller, the same gaps are an invitation to artistic license.
I do intend to follow three guidelines in using that license. First, I will assume that the earliest estimated date for any historic development is the correct one: the Termit Massif bloomeries were founded in the 16th century BC rather than the 11th or the beginning of the first millennium, and the proto-Nok existed on the Jos Plateau before 1000 BC. Second, I will assume that cultural traits didn’t appear out of nowhere, and that whatever compelled the Nok to craft their unique terra-cotta statues during the first millennium has its roots in a far earlier time. And third, I will assume that trade, warfare and other forms of contact between the peoples of the Niger Valley and the adjacent Sahelian regions are a constant throughout the timeline. I consider these assumptions reasonable with the exception of the first, and even as to that, I doubt I’ll be proven wrong anytime soon. The combination of the three, properly applied, can get us to the Iron Age.
A note on place-names: For the most part, I’ll use contemporary names for cities and towns but modern ones for geographic features, both to avoid confusion and so that I won’t have to make up as many damn names. I’ll also use the BC/AD dating system, even though the events of this story will probably prevent Christianity from ever arising. Given that the subject matter of the story may be unfamiliar to many readers, I’d prefer not to add the extra layer of confusion that would come from a made-up calendar or geographic terms. You may, if you prefer, imagine that the story is being narrated by a traveler from the world we know.
And with that, I welcome you to…
In this timeline, it will leave much more.
You may have figured, from the title of the thread, that I’m referring to what we know as the Nok culture, although that certainly wasn’t their name for themselves. I am… and I’m not. The culture that will arise in this timeline will have many similarities to the Nok, including their artistic and (almost certainly) religious sensibility. But it will arise earlier, and just as importantly, it will make the transition from the Neolithic to the Iron Age considerably sooner.
How? With a nearly clean slate to work on, there are ways. If I were an archaeologist, the extreme gaps in our knowledge of the Nok would be my despair – but as a storyteller, the same gaps are an invitation to artistic license.
I do intend to follow three guidelines in using that license. First, I will assume that the earliest estimated date for any historic development is the correct one: the Termit Massif bloomeries were founded in the 16th century BC rather than the 11th or the beginning of the first millennium, and the proto-Nok existed on the Jos Plateau before 1000 BC. Second, I will assume that cultural traits didn’t appear out of nowhere, and that whatever compelled the Nok to craft their unique terra-cotta statues during the first millennium has its roots in a far earlier time. And third, I will assume that trade, warfare and other forms of contact between the peoples of the Niger Valley and the adjacent Sahelian regions are a constant throughout the timeline. I consider these assumptions reasonable with the exception of the first, and even as to that, I doubt I’ll be proven wrong anytime soon. The combination of the three, properly applied, can get us to the Iron Age.
A note on place-names: For the most part, I’ll use contemporary names for cities and towns but modern ones for geographic features, both to avoid confusion and so that I won’t have to make up as many damn names. I’ll also use the BC/AD dating system, even though the events of this story will probably prevent Christianity from ever arising. Given that the subject matter of the story may be unfamiliar to many readers, I’d prefer not to add the extra layer of confusion that would come from a made-up calendar or geographic terms. You may, if you prefer, imagine that the story is being narrated by a traveler from the world we know.
And with that, I welcome you to…