The art cultures of Nigeria are Nok, Igbo-Ukwu, Ife, Tsoede and Benin. Sculptures of the Nok culture, dated between 500 B.C. and 200 A.D., have realistic features characterized by the special precision with which eyes, lips, ears and the hole in the nostrils are sculpted. Igbo-Ukwu art, between the 9th and 11th centuries AD, is characterised by an abundant production of bronze objects revealing a great mastery of the lost wax casting technique. Digs carried out in the 1930s by Leo Frobenius, a German ethnologist and archaeologist, led to the discovery of the Ife civilisation, whose beginnings date back to the 12th century, and of several bronze heads, including one that probably represents the sea deity, Olokun. These sculptures represent an indigenous African tradition which reached an exceptionally high level of realism and refinement. Tsoede art, from the 13th century onwards, is characterised by its famous bronzes. The typical feature of this art is the asymmetry of the figures and their realistic proportions.
