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This outstanding stone sculpture of a human figure
is both very old and highly inscrutable. It is also one
of the most exceptional examples we have seen. The
body is comparatively naturalistic, and much less
reduced than in others of this group. The base of
the piece appears to be a stool, and as it is highly
eroded it is not possible to see how the figure’s legs
related to the seat. The figure may be female,
judging from what appear to be breasts. The head is
a masterwork, with delicate rendering of rimmed
eyes, a small nose, modelled cheeks and an ornate
crested coiffure. The irregular condition and
weathering of the stone, which is extremely hard,
implies that it is ancient, and that it has been buried
for a long period of time.
The sculpture strongly resembles Palaeolithic works
from Europe and Asia Minor, which are preoccupied
with “fertility” symbolism that usually revolves
around corpulent, schematically simplified women
with highly exaggerated breasts and buttocks. This
and other related pieces in the Barakat collection
have been classified as Bongo, but there are issues
with this classification. The Bongo are linguistically,
historically and archaeologically attested to have
come to Sudan from the area currently known as
Chad during the 16th century, thus post-dating this
piece by between 500 and 2000 years. We are thus
talking about an unexplored culture. The similarities
in style with Bongo art may be coincidence, but it is
more probable that the Bongo people acquired their
distinctive art styles from the previous inhabitants of
the area in the manner of the Dogon and the
Tellem.
As stated, nothing is known of this culture. Even the
age of the piece is uncertain: the span we have
provided is inevitably wide, and while it is most
likely to lie within the first millennium BC to the first
millennium AD, it may be older than this. The Bura
(Niger Delta) made similarly reductivist stone pieces
in the first half of the second millennium AD. The
art itself does imply a society of considerable
complexity, and thus settled, agricultural and
socially stratified. The function of the piece is
unknowable at present. However, the size of the
object exceeds that which might be expected for
personal talismanic functions, and is more likely to
be a social/religious focus that represents an
ancestor either real or mythical.
This is a rare and fascinating piece of ancient
African art.
- (SUD.008 (LSO))
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