Nok terracotta

Thinker with leopard, Nok Terracotta (Kaduna region, Nigeria)

In the 1940s, miners accidentally discovered some terracotta buried in Jos, a plateau located northeast of Abuja. This discovery soon attracted a team of archaeologists who concluded that about two thousand years ago a civilization developed in the heart of what is now Nigeria based on trade and the smelting of iron extracted in nearby mines.
The civilization took the name Nok from the village near the site, although over time other similar terracottas have been found in the states of Sokoto and Katsina (northern Nigeria).
Classic Nok terracottas are characterized by representing human figures with elongated heads, high foreheads, elaborate hairstyles and slanted eyes. The one we have in Black Market represents a young man sitting on a pedestal whose chin rests on his right fist, and this on his knee; On his other leg he holds a leopard cub. His face presents all the peculiarities of the classic Nok figure.

Height: 55.0 cm; Width: 22.0cm; Weight: 6.40 Kg