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Date : XIIIrd century
Material : Terracotta
Acquisition : (1981)
| Item 7 on 42
Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
Sculpture
Vitrine : 2 (Ref. 1)
Area related
Delta intérieur du Niger (Mali)
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| Description |  |
Some of the oldest sculptures from West Africa come from the area known as the Inland Delta of the Niger River, near the present-day home of the Dogon and Bamana peoples. Here the ancient city of Jenne-Jeno flourished by the middle of the first millennium A.D. as a center for agriculture, trade and art. Throughout this region artists made pottery sculptures that depict figures wearing a variety of garnments and exhibiting a range of gestures. This figure"s hunched, seated pose, shaved head and lack of ornaments recall mourning practices widespread in Africa. The rows of purched marks and raised bosses on its back may represent intentional scarification patterns or symptom of a disease. Such pottery figures may have been placed on domestic altars dedicated to ancestral or protective spirits.
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