🇳🇬 Nigeria · Archaeological wonder
Nok Culture Sites (Taruga & Jemaa)
Late Neolithic to Early Iron Age (1500 BCE–500 CE; comparable to Carthage early) · Nok Culture (unknown language; possibly proto-Benue-Congo)
500 BCE terracotta heads with triangular eyes and elaborate coiffures plus earliest West African iron furnaces (13 at Taruga 700–400 BCE).