Igbo Ukwu peoples Container Leaded bronze L. 30.5 cm (12") National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria, 39.1.12
This beautiful vessel is also presumed to be from Igbo Isaiah, the regalia storehouse. The shell was at first thought to depict an African land snail, but experts have identified it as a triton shell from the sea (Shaw 1977: 29). The coast is approximately 100 miles away, and it is intriguing to wonder whether the sea was a source of trade or had a ritual association. The pointed end of the shell is decorated with four frogs being swallowed by four snake heads. The rest of the shell surface has a network of parallel lines, crosshatchings, and granulations typical of Igbo Ukwu. Scattered across this are relief sculptures of crickets and flies. These insects, along with beetles and spiders, are often depicted on the bronzes of Igbo Ukwu. Perhaps they reflected the importance of controlling such insects on the yam crop or illustrated a now-forgotten metaphor.
Leaded bronze items found at the compounds of Isaiah Anozie, Richard Anozie and Jonah Anozie in Igbo-Ukwu, in present day Anambra State, Nigeria used state-of-the-art techniques and designs in the 7th-10th century which were mostly unmatched globally. The entire works were produced through the lost-wax process, but the remarkable and technically complicated aspects of the bronzes were the incredible attention to detail including complex imitation rope-work and relief sculptures of insects on the works. The triton shell is particularly interesting since the sea is around 100 miles away from where the items were found leading to questions about the sea as a source of trading or ritual associations. The copper and lead (used in making bronze) we now know came from a nearby mine (Craddock et al 1997).
For the roped pot the University of Iowa says:
This roped pot, one of the most beautiful and technically complicated objects from Igbo Ukwu, was the first object excavated by Shaw. The pear-shaped pot sits on a pot stand ornamented with pinwheel-shaped openings. Both are encircled by imitation ropework tied into square knots at the junctions. The bronze casters were so confident of their technique that hardly a flaw or seam can be seen, although it was cast in as many as eight different sections. The site where it was found may have been a storehouse of regalia or ritual material. More than fifty objects—pottery, cloth, [60,000 glass] beads, bronzes, copper wire, calabashes, and ornamented iron blades—were all carefully laid out on a low platform, originally protected by walls and a roof. For some unknown reason the storehouse was abandoned.
The earliest known fabric in West Africa was also found in the burial chamber at Igbo Ukwu made of vegetable fibre. It was also the first instance found of an equestrian figure in West Africa before Nok.
These items are in the National Museum in Lagos, Nigeria.
