Funerary Sculpture with Simian Figure
Dakakari, Nigeria
Terracotta
Circa 1600 CE

The Dakakari are a small ethnic group in the hills of the Zuru Federation in the North-Western State of Nigeria whose principal occupation has been agricultural and military service for centuries. Besides ironwork, it is solely pottery that is carried on as a trade and an art, and then exclusively by women. While everyday pottery is open to all women, religious pottery is only made within certain families, the knowledge and technique being passed from mother to daughter. The Dakakari have become renowned for these religious terracotta grave sculptures, which are placed on the burial sites of important personalities; ordinary citizens get only household crockery on their grave mounds. 

Those who can present important religious sculptures on their grave mounds include village heads, war heroes, great hunters, top members of the mens' secret society Oknuh, and the leading blacksmith.

There are six categories of terracotta grave sculptures. This type is known as the elephant. These are the most expensive and largest Dakakari works, often modeled with a head that bears grotesque features (such as the simian figure on this example) (Schaedler, Earth and Ore, 1997).  

Thermoluminescence (TL) tested by Laboratory Ralf Kotalla in 2006; 400 +/- 80 years old.

30 in :: 76 cm

InventoryID #13-1051

SOLD