Nigeria

=== Prehistory ===
{{Main|Prehistory of Nigeria}}

[[Kainji Dam]] excavations showed ironworking by the 2nd century BC. The transition from [[Neolithic]] times to the [[Iron Age]] was accomplished without intermediate [[Bronze Age|bronze]] production. Some have suggested the technology moved west from the [[Nile Valley]]. But the [[Iron metallurgy in Africa|Iron Age]] in the [[Niger River]] valley and the forest region appears to predate the introduction of metallurgy in the upper savanna by more than 800 years, as well as predating it in the Nile Valley. More recent research suggests that iron metallurgy was developed independently in [[sub-Saharan Africa]].<ref name="Tylecote 1975 see below">Tylecote 1975 (see below)</ref><ref name="Eggert 2014 51–59">{{cite book|title=Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context|last=Eggert|first=Manfred|publisher=Africa Magna Verlag Press|year=2014|editor-last=Breunig|editor-first=P|location=Frankfurt, Germany|pages=51–59|chapter=Early iron in West and Central Africa}}</ref><ref name="Eggert 2014 53–54">{{cite book|title=Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context|last=Eggert|first=Manfred|publisher=Africa Magna Verlag Press|year=2014|isbn=9783937248462|editor-last=Breunig|editor-first=P|location=Frankfurt, Germany|pages=53–54|chapter=Early iron in West and Central Africa|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBn1BQAAQBAJ&q=Nok+Breunig&pg=PA38}}</ref><ref name=Holl-2020#2>{{cite journal|last1=Holl |first1=Augustin F. C.|title=The Origins of African Metallurgies |journal=Oxford Research Encyclopedias|date=June 2020|volume=22|issue=4 |pages=12–13|isbn=9780190854584|oclc=7869925414 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.63 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342656145}}</ref>

[[File:Nok sculpture Louvre 70-1998-11-1.jpg|thumb|[[Nok]] sculpture, [[terracotta]]]]

The [[Nok culture|Nok civilization]] thrived between 1,500 BC and AD 200. It produced life-sized [[terracotta]] figures that are some of the earliest known sculptures in sub-Saharan Africa<ref name="PB 2014">Breunig, Peter. 2014. Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context: p. 21.</ref><ref>Nicole Rupp, Peter Breunig & Stefanie Kahlheber, "[http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/kahlheber/ Exploring the Nok Enigma] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112232/http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/kahlheber/ |date=4 March 2016}}", ''Antiquity'' 82.316, June 2008.</ref><ref>B.E.B. Fagg, "The Nok Culture in Prehistory", ''Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria'' 1.4, December 1959.</ref><ref name="archaeology">{{cite book|last1=Kleiner|first1=Fred S. |first2=Christin J. |last2=Mamiya |title=Gardner's Art Through the Ages: Non-Western Perspectives|publisher=[[Cengage Learning]]|edition=13, revised|year=2009|page=194|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TlVeuxIgjwQC&q=Nok+terracotta+earliest|isbn=978-0-495-57367-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nok/hd_nok.htm |title=Nok Terracottas (500 B.C.–200 A.D.) &#124; Thematic Essay &#124; Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History &#124; The Metropolitan Museum of Art |publisher=Metmuseum.org |date=2 June 2014 |access-date=16 July 2014}}</ref> and smelted iron by about 550 BC and possibly a few centuries earlier.<ref name="Tylecote 1975 see below"/><ref name="Eggert 2014 51–59"/><ref name="Eggert 2014 53–54"/> Evidence of iron smelting has also been excavated at sites in the [[Nsukka]] region of southeast Nigeria: dating to 2000 BC at the site of [[Lejja]]<ref name="Eze-Uzomaka">{{cite journal|title=Iron and its influence on the prehistoric site of Lejja|url=https://www.academia.edu/4103707|last1=Eze–Uzomaka|first1=Pamela|website=Academia.edu|publisher=University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria|access-date=12 December 2014}}</ref> and to 750 BC and at the site of [[Opi (archaeological site)|Opi]].