View source for Taruga

{{for|the tree frogs|Taruga (frog)}}
[[File:Verbreitung Nok-Kultur-en.png|thumb|Area of [[Nok culture]] finds in [[Nigeria]]. Taruga is south east of [[Abuja]]]]{{Short description|Archaeological site in Nigeria}}
'''Taruga''' is an archeological site in [[Nigeria]] famous for the artifacts of the [[Nok culture]] that have been discovered there, some dating to 600&nbsp;BC, and for evidence of very early [[ferrous metallurgy|iron working]].<ref name=Falola2008/> The site is 60&nbsp;km southeast of [[Abuja]], in the [[Middle Belt]].<ref name=Clarkv2/>
==Background==
[[File:A man ride a horse,Nok terracotta figurine.jpg|thumb|Nok terracotta figurine of a man on horseback]]
Taruga is just one of the sites in central Nigeria where artifacts from the Nok culture have been excavated. Since 1945, similar figurines and pottery have been found in many other locations in the area, often uncovered accidentally by modern tin miners, and dating from before 500&nbsp;BC to 200&nbsp;AD.<ref name=Ameje2005>
{{cite journal
|url=http://www.abuja.diplo.de/contentblob/2671950/Daten/743584/Nok_pdf.pdf
|title=NEW STUDIES ON THE NOK CULTURE OF CENTRAL NIGERIA
|journal=Journal of African  Archaeology |volume=3 |issue=2 |year=2005 |pages=283–290
|author=Nicole Rupp, James Ameje & Peter Breunig
|access-date=2011-01-09
}}</ref> The region was probably moister and more heavily wooded during this period than it is today, but was still north of the zone of dense forests. The people would have subsisted by farming and cattle raising. As the climate gradually became drier, they would have drifted south, so the Nok people may have been the ancestors of people such as the [[Igala people|Igala]], [[Nupe people|Nupe]], [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] and [[Ibo people|Ibo]], whose artwork shows similarities to the earlier Nok artifacts.<ref name=Oliver1975/>
==Clay figurines and pottery==
Early terracotta figurines from Taruga are decorated with bands of oblique comb stamping, parallel grooving, false relief chevron and incised hatched triangles. These designs appear to have influenced subsequent [[Ife]] traditions. Later styles are similar to findings from the Neolithic and Iron Age at [[Rim (Upper Volta)|Rim]] in [[Republic of Upper Volta|Upper Volta]], with decorations such as twisted and carved roulettes.<ref name=Mokhtar1981/> Many of the heads or busts that have been found may once have been part of complete figures.<ref name=Onians2004/> The figurines probably represented tribal heroes and ancestors, and would have been housed in shrines in permanent village compounds.<ref name=Oliver1975/>
Pottery is typically decorated with raised dots made by a carved roulette, which may cover most of the body of the pot. Often the dots are combined with grooved lines, and may make a net-like pattern over the body of the pot. Both the figurines and the pottery were baked at low temperature, and are therefore fragile.<ref name=Ameje2005/>
==Iron working==
[[File:East&southern_africa_early_iron_age.png|thumb|Iron Age finds in East and Southern Africa]]
[[Bernard Fagg]] undertook a controlled evacuation of Taruga in the 1960s, finding both [[terracotta]] figurines and iron slag with [[radiocarbon date]]s from about the fourth and third centuries BC.<ref name=Oliver1975/><ref name=Rupp2008/> Iron working at the site has now been firmly dated to 600&nbsp;BC, two hundred years before it began in [[Katsina-Ala]], another Nok center.<ref name=Isichei1997/> This is the earliest known date for iron working in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]].<ref name=Fasi1988/> It has been speculated that iron smelting technology was introduced to the region from North Africa, perhaps via [[Meroe]], but it may well have developed indigenously, building on earlier copper-smelting technology in which iron ore was used as a [[flux_(metallurgy)|flux]].<ref name=Shaw1995/> The beehive and cylindrical furnaces of West Africa are quite different in form from those of North Africa and Mesopotamia.<ref name=Collins2007/> The iron workers at Taruga certainly seem to have developed the innovation of pre-heating the air entering the furnace so as to obtain higher temperatures.<ref name=Shaw1995/>
A short blade found at Taruga dating to around the fourth century BC was probably made from smaller pieces of metal forged together by a "piling" technique. The fragments obtained by smelting would have been wrapped in clay, heated to {{val|1200|u=degC}}, then taken from the fire and forged to weld them into a single piece.<ref name=Friede1977/> This approach is sophisticated, since it prevented excessive oxidization during the long period of heating. The metal is extraordinarily free of impurities.<ref name=Friede1979/>
==Today==
As of October 2007, the Federal Government was being asked to protect and rehabilitate the site in view of its tourist potential. However, the site was threatened by illegal miners looking to develop the mineral resources.<ref name=Timothy20071015/>
==References==
{{reflist|1|refs=
<ref name=Clarkv2>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTNTz3POoZUC&pg=PA330
|page=330
|title=The Cambridge history of Africa, Volume 2
|author=J. Desmond Clark |author2=J. D.. Fage |author3=Roland Oliver |author4=Richard Gray |author5=John E.. Flint |author6=G. N.. Sanderson |author7=A. D.. Roberts |author8=Michael Crowder
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|ISBN=0-521-21592-7}}</ref>
<ref name=Collins2007>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZcX2jQFTRcC&pg=PA62
|page=62
|title=A history of Sub-Saharan Africa
|author=Robert O. Collins, James McDonald Burns
|publisher=Cambridge University Press, 2007
|ISBN=0-521-86746-0}}</ref>
<ref name=Falola2008>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XygZjbNRap0C&pg=PA20
|page=20
|title=A history of Nigeria
|author=Toyin Falola, Matthew M. Heaton
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|year=2008
|ISBN=0-521-68157-X}}</ref>
<ref name=Fasi1988>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tw0Q0tg0QLoC&pg=PA467
|pages=467–468
|title=Africa from the seventh to the eleventh century
|author=Muḥammad Fāsī
|publisher=UNESCO
|year=1988
|ISBN=92-3-101709-8}}</ref>
<ref name=Friede1977>{{cite journal
|url=http://www.saimm.co.za/Journal/v077n11p224.pdf
|title=Iron Age metal working in the Magaliesberg area
|author=H. M. FRIEDE
|access-date=2011-01-09
|date=June 1977
|journal=Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy}}</ref>
<ref name=Friede1979>{{cite journal
|url=http://www.saimm.co.za/Journal/v079n13p372.pdf
|title=Iron-smelting furnaces and metallurgical traditions of the South African Iron Age
|author=H. M. FRIEDE
|access-date=2011-01-09
|date=August 1979
|journal=Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy}}</ref>
<ref name=Isichei1997>{{cite book
|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofafrican00isic
|url-access=registration
|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofafrican00isic/page/70 70]
|title=A history of African societies to 1870
|author=Elizabeth Allo Isichei
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|year=1997
|ISBN=0-521-45599-5}}</ref>
<ref name=Mokhtar1981>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gB6DcMU94GUC&pg=PA611
|page=611
|title=Ancient civilizations of Africa
|author=G. Mokhtar
|publisher=University of California Press
|year=1981
|ISBN=0-435-94805-9}}</ref>
<ref name=Oliver1975>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C5qYNSRjqacC&pg=PA64
|page=64
|title=Africa in the Iron Age, c500 B.C. to A.D. 1400, Part 1400
|author=Roland Anthony Oliver, Brian M. Fagan
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|year=1975
|ISBN=0-521-09900-5}}</ref>
<ref name=Onians2004>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O3h2KfXoOPYC&pg=PA72
|page=72
|chapter=Africa 500 BC-AD 600
|title=Atlas of world art
|author=John Onians
|publisher=Laurence King Publishing
|year=2004
|ISBN=1-85669-377-5}}</ref>
<ref name=Rupp2008>{{cite journal
|url=http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/kahlheber/index.html
|journal=Antiquity |volume=82 |issue=316
|date=June 2008
|title=Exploring the Nok enigma
|author=Nicole Rupp, Peter Breunig & Stefanie Kahlheber
|access-date=2011-01-10}}</ref>
<ref name=Shaw1995>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmUwjhQX-rcC&pg=PA432
|page=433ff
|title=The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns
|author=Thurstan Shaw
|publisher=Routledge
|year=1995
|ISBN=0-415-11585-X}}</ref>
<ref name=Timothy20071015>{{cite web
|url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200710151286.html
|title=Awolowo Inspects Taruga Tourist Site
|work=Leadership
|author=Golu Timothy
|date=15 October 2007
|access-date=2011-01-09}}</ref>
}}
{{Archaeological sites in Nigeria}}
{{coord|8|25|N|7|15|E|region:NG_type:landmark_source:dewiki|display=title}}
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Nigeria]]
[[Category:1960s archaeological discoveries]]
[[Category:Iron Age sites in Africa]]