Bongo Stone Effigy Figure, 1500 BCE - 1000 BCE
Stone
39
SUD.017 (LSO)
This beautiful sculpture of a human figure with the hands crossed on the chest is both very old and highly inscrutable. The knees are flexed at the hip and knee,...
This beautiful sculpture of a human figure with the hands crossed on the chest is both very old and highly inscrutable. The knees are flexed at the hip and knee, and it appears to be seated. It has a simple columnar body, somewhat elongated in relation to the head and limbs. The neck is thick, supporting a round head with a slight superior crest. The face is small, with round eyes beneath slight brows that merge with the nose for a T-bar effect. The mouth is very small and pursed. The arms are crossed at the wrist, adjacent to the neck; the fingers are individually rendered.
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, but it is most likely to lie within the first millennium BC to the first 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 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.
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, but it is most likely to lie within the first millennium BC to the first 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 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.