Collection record · Objects & craft
Head
The collection record classifies this work as sculpture. It is dated thermoluminescence date 20–620 CE. Recorded culture or place: Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Nok-culture style region, unknown female ceramicist.
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A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Head
- Date
- thermoluminescence date 20–620 CE
- Culture / origin
- Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Nok-culture style region, unknown female ceramicist
- Materials and technique
- terracotta
- Dimensions
- Overall: 38.2 x 20 cm (15 1/16 x 7 7/8 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Not specified by the museum
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1995.21
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
More than 500 such sculptures—often full figures with elaborate hairstyles and jewelry— have been found in central Nigeria. Named after a discovery site, Nok culture (500 BCE–200 CE or 1500–1 BCE) produced the earliest large figurative artworks in Africa outside of Egypt. Little was known about their social context, as they were first found in mining deposits in the 1920s. Archaeological excavations conducted in the 2000s by a German-Nigerian team suggest that many sculptures were deliberately broken and placed under pavements and in pits, indicating ritual practice. Male-centered art histories presumed men made these figurative sculptures; however, they incorporate building and firing techniques practiced only by women.
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Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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