A Profile of an Iron Smith from the Nok Culture of Nigeria.
An excavation site, near the village of Taruga in Nigeria, revealed something nobody was expecting: iron furnaces. Archaeologists found 13 furnaces, and terracotta figurines were in such close association—inside the furnaces and around them—that he postulated the terracottas were objects of worship to aid blacksmithing and smelting. They were part of the Nok Culture