Spear Point

African

  • Titles Spear Point (Descriptive)
  • Medium iron
  • Dimensions 13 3/8 x 1 7/8 x 3/4 in. (34 x 4.8 x 1.9 cm)
  • Credit Line Gift of Mortimer B. and Sue Fuller, 2006.126
  • Work Type spear point
  • Classification Weapons and Ammunition

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Vessel cover dedicated to the river god, Erinle. Such vessels were used to hold "moving water" from rivers or the sea, but not from wells, Every sixteen days the water is renewed together with two stones taken from a river as symbols of Erinle. The stones are also considered analogous to embryos in the womb. Surmounted by a male figure with his arms around a bowl on a potstand, a salamander or other river animal is behind him, and ritual implements surround him.
Wide brown jar with narrower short, flared rim tapers to narrow bottom. Shoulder has repeating modeled pattern of small abstract human faces alternating with vertical elements of double bars and raised bumps.
Reddish, ovoid vessel with wide mouth and handles just below rim has parallel raised ridges on shoulder.
Deformity Mask (Idiok Ekpo), Ibibio people, Nigeria, African, wood