Katsina-Ala is a Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State

Benue State

Benue is a state in the Middle-Belt region of Nigeria with a population of about 2.8 million in 1991. Tiv, Idoma, and Igede are spoken predominantly. There are other ethnic groups as well. These include Etulo and Abakwa...

, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Katsina-Ala where the A344 highway

A344 highway (Nigeria)

The A344 highway is a highway in Nigeria. It is one of the east-west roads linking the main south-north roads. ....

 starts. It is also the location of an important archeological site where artifacts of the Nok culture have been found.

Community

The LGA of Katsina-Ala has an area of 2,402 km² and a population of 224,718 at the 2006 census.
The postal code

Postal code

A postal code is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail. Once postal codes were introduced, other applications became possible.In February 2005, 117 of the 190 member countries of the Universal Postal Union had postal code systems...

 of the area is 980001.
The community, which lies on the banks of the Katsina-Ala river, a major tributary of the Benue River

Benue River

The Benue River is the major tributary of the Niger River. The river is approximately 1,400 km long and is almost entirely navigable during the summer months...

, is mainly occupied by Tiv.

Archeological site

Terracotta statues were found at Katsina Ala in the middle of the twentieth century.
They include realistic representations of human heads, with some animals, and parts of larger statues.
The statues are similar to others found at Nok

Nok

The Nok culture appeared in Nigeria around 1000 B.C. and mysteriously vanished around 500 AD in the region of West Africa. This region lies in Central Nigeria. The culture’s social system is thought to have been highly advanced. The Nok culture was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer...

, about 209 km to the north, and are thought to have been made by people of the same culture.
The human figures most likely represented ancestors or spirits.
According to Bernard Fagg

Bernard Fagg

Bernard Evelyn Buller Fagg was a British archaeologist and Museum curator who undertook extensive work in Nigeria before and after the Second World War....

, an archeologist who undertook extensive studies into the Nok culture, the works at Katsina Ala constitutes a distinctive sub-style.
Statues from Taruga

Taruga

Taruga is an archeological site in Nigeria famous for the artifacts of the Nok culture that have been discovered there, some dating to 600 BC, and for evidence of very early iron working.The site is 60 km southeast of Abuja, in the Middle Belt....

 and from Samun Dukiya

Samun Dukiya

Samun Dukiya is an archeological site in Nigeria in the Nok valley where artifacts from the Nok culture have been found, dating to between 300 BC and 100 BC.Radio-carbon dating indicates that the site was occupied between 2500 and 2000 years ago....

are similar, but have typical stylistic differences.

Iron working began at the site in the fourth century BC, somewhat later than iron working at Taruga.
Smelted tin beads have also been found at the site, some of which could be imitations of cowrie shells.