Editing African art (section)

== History ==
{{Further|Prehistoric art#Africa|History of art#Africa}}
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| caption1          = Nok male figure; 500 BC-500 AD; terracotta; {{convert|49.5|×|22.2|×|16.8|cm|in|abbr=on}}; from northern [[Nigeria]]; [[Kimbell Art Museum]] ([[Fort Worth]], [[Texas]], USA)
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| caption2          = Benin [[Benin bronzes|plaque]]; 16th-17th century; bronze; from the [[Kingdom of Benin]]; [[Ethnological Museum of Berlin]] (Germany)
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| caption3          = [[Bronze Head from Ife|Head from Ife]] (Nigeria); 14th-15th century AD; bronze; height: 36 cm (14{{fraction|1|8}} in); [[British Museum]] (London)
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The origins of African art lie long before the recorded history. The region's oldest known [[bead]]s were made from ''[[Nassarius]]'' shells and worn as personal ornaments 72,000 years ago.<ref name="Mitchell 2013 p. 375" /> In Africa, evidence for the making of paints by a complex process exists from about 100,000 years ago<ref name="Henshilwood et al. 2011" /> and of the use of pigments from around 320,000 years ago.<ref name="McBrearty Brooks 2000" /><ref name="The Atlantic-555674">{{cite news |last=Yong |first=Ed |author-link=Ed Yong |title=A Cultural Leap at the Dawn of Humanity - New finds from Kenya suggest that humans used long-distance trade networks, sophisticated tools, and symbolic pigments right from the dawn of our species. |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/a-deeper-origin-of-complex-human-cultures/555674/ |date=15 March 2018 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |access-date=15 March 2018 }}</ref> African rock art in the [[Sahara]] in [[Niger]] preserves 6000-year-old carvings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.the153club.org/giraffe.html|title="New" Giraffe Engravings Found|publisher=The 153 Club|access-date=2007-05-31| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070612211620/http://www.the153club.org/giraffe.html| archive-date= 12 June 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref> Along with sub-Saharan Africa, the Western cultural arts, [[ancient Egypt]]ian paintings and artifacts, and indigenous southern crafts also contributed greatly to African art. The abundance of surrounding nature was often depicted through abstract interpretations of animals, plant life, or natural designs and shapes. The [[Nubia]]n [[Kingdom of Kush]] in modern [[Sudan]] was in close and often hostile contact with Egypt and produced monumental sculptures mostly derivative of styles that did not lead to the north. In West Africa, the earliest known sculptures are from the [[Nok culture]], which thrived between 1,500&nbsp;BC and 500&nbsp;AD in modern [[Nigeria]]. Its clay figures typically feature elongated bodies and angular shapes.<ref name="Breunig p. 21">{{Cite book |last=Breunig |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBn1BQAAQBAJ&q=Nok:+African+Sculpture+in+Archaeological+Context: |title=Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context |date= 2014 |publisher= Africa Magna Verlag|isbn= 9783937248462|page=21 |language=en}}</ref>

More complex methods of producing art were developed in [[sub-Saharan Africa]] around the 10th century, some of the most notable advancements include the bronze work of [[Igbo Ukwu]] and the terracotta and metalworks of [[Ile Ife]] [[Bronze]] and [[brass]] castings, often ornamented with [[ivory]] and [[precious stone]]s, became highly prestigious in much of [[West Africa]], sometimes being limited to the work of court artisans and identified with [[Royal family|royalty]], as with the [[Benin Bronzes]].

As Europeans explored the coasts of West Africa, they discovered a wide range of functional objects that Africans used for cultural, social, and economic purposes. Oath devices, for instance, were essential to securing business relationships during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Though these works of craftsmanship followed their own aesthetic principles, they were regarded as tools of sorcery by European travel writers and reduced to a category of "fetish," which was understood to be outside the realm of art.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pietz |first=William |date=March 1985 |title=The Problem of the Fetish, I |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/resv9n1ms20166719 |journal=Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics |volume=9 |pages=5–17 |doi=10.1086/resv9n1ms20166719 |issn=0277-1322|url-access=subscription }}</ref>