Samun Dukiya (Nok satellite)
Samun Dukiya · Samundukiya · Jemaa head
Nigerian Iron Age (1500 BCE–500 CE)·Nok·🇳🇬 Kaduna State (Nok Valley), Nigeria
About
About Samun Dukiya (Nok satellite)
Early Nok type-site furnishing iconic Nok terracotta heads c.900 BCE–500 CE within Jemaa Head valley, Samun Dukiya waterlogged alluvial pit 5 m deep yielded 25 terracotta heads in situ 1978 rescue by Bernard Fagg: 50-cm hollow torso? Large female with elaborate hair 30 cm, iron knives, crucible fragments, quartzite microliths and Nok's earliest iron 550 (?) B.C.E. Thermoluminescence 900 BCE heads recalibrated to 400 BCE. Adjacent Katsina-Ala and Jemaa villages. Nok culture 700 km² hallmark Nok style flared nostrils, arch eye. Funding threat: tin mining.
Why it mattersNok classic site demonstrating in-situ context refuting looting-collapsed myth and earliest iron among heads.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Whether Nok heads funerary markers vs shrine images
- 02Iron smelting contemporaneity vs later intrusion
Theories
- 01Nok autochthonous iron invention 550 BCE (Rupp)
- 02Valley-ridge Nok economic model (Breunig)
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Nok culture 1500 BCE–500 CE (classic heads 900 BCE–100 BCE)
- Period
- Nigerian Iron Age (1500 BCE–500 CE)
- Culture
- Nok
- Purpose
- Valley workshop cemetery for iron elite terracotta votives
- Rediscovered
- 1924 tin dig; 1932 Fagg; 1969 Allsworth-Jones
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
Nok culture 1500 BCE–500 CE (classic heads 900 BCE–100 BCE)
Initial construction
c. 1012 CE
Major expansion
On the ground
Structures & features
9.4500° N · 8.0500° E · 640 m · 1 mapped feature
Pit 1969 Terracotta Deposit
depositLayer yielding 25 heads in situ
9.4510° N · 8.0510° E
Gallery