Taruga Iron Production Site

Taruga

Nigeria

Mine / workshopUnknown
Approximate period400 BCE — 1,500 CENok period and later phases of iron production See on the map ↓

In brief

Excavations at Taruga have shown that Nok figurines and iron production remains occur together. Later assessments indicate that the furnaces were used in different periods and that all the production remains cannot be assigned to a single date.

What was found?

  • 1Iron production furnaces

    Excavations have uncovered the remains of furnaces used to produce iron. Reassessments have shown that the furnaces do not all date to the same period.

  • 2Terracotta figurine fragments

    Figurine fragments belonging to the Nok tradition have been found. Their spatial relationships with the furnaces have enabled discussion of a possible connection between artistic production and metallurgy.

  • 3Iron slag

    Fragments and deposits of slag formed during iron production have been found. They are direct evidence that metal was produced at the site.

  • 4Tuyère fragments

    These are fragments of terracotta pipes used to supply air to the furnace. They help researchers investigate how the furnaces operated.

What does it point to?

Taruga is a site where iron production can be studied through furnaces and production waste. According to researchers, there may be a relationship between the figurines and metallurgy; the precise function of the figurines, however, has not been established.

What did it teach us?

  1. It provided tangible evidence of iron production during the Nok period.
  2. New dating showed that some furnaces were used long after the Nok period.
  3. It revealed that the presence of artifacts and furnaces together at the same site does not mean that they were all contemporary.

Images

Taruga eques
Praneeth Silva · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Nok
Team / historical
Bernard Fagg; Nigerian Department of Antiquities
Coordinates
8.8751°, 7.4489°

Sources

  1. archaeology.org
  2. brill.com
  3. en.wikipedia.org
  4. African Archaeological Review — Taruga buluntularının yeniden değerlendirilmesi

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12.000

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