Covers highlights in Ancient African art history based on the Stokstad textbook (3rd ed) including Benin, Great Zimbabwe, Igbo Ukwu, and more, along with a brief video on Edward Said's "Orientalism" theory.

1. Ancient
Africa
Art History Survey I
T, R, 12 -1:20PM
Professor Paige Prater

2. Africa
 Trade with Egypt through the Hellenistic period
 Greeks traded with northern coast
 Romans continued trans-Saharan trade
 Islam: 7-8th century CE –
 West African gold
 Chronicled Ghana, Mali, Songhay, etc.
 East Africa: Swahili and trade ports of Mogadishu,
Mombasa, and Kilwa
 15th century: Portugal establishes trade with Benin
 20th century: African art widely collected but
misunderstood

3. Challenges to studying African
Art
 Wood
 Myth of “Primitive” art
 Contemporary traditions
 Oral histories
 Still discovering…
 Ocher pigment + perforated shells; 70,000
years ago!

4. Orientalism = applicable to
Africa?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwCOSkXR_Cw

5. Sahara Rock Art – 8000-
500BCE
Cattle Being Tended, section of rock-wall painting, Tassili-n-Ajjer,
Algeria, c. 5000-2000 BCE

6. Nok – 500 BCE-
200CE
 Earliest evidence of iron
technology (western
Sudan, present-day
Nigeria)
 Terracotta Head, Nok,
500BCE-200CE, 36cm,
National Museum, Lagos,
Nigeria

7. Igbo-Ukwu
 Eastern Nigeria
 Earliest known
evidence for copper
alloy and bronze
casting
 Roped Pot on a
Stand, Igbo-Ukwu,
9th-10th century,
32.3cm (approx. 12”)

8. Ife – 800 CE-Present
 “navel of the world”
 Circular plan metropolis by 11th century;
palace at center
 Stone walls + moats
 Radial roads
 1000-1400CE – Pavement Period
 “oni” = first ruler

9. Ife (Yoruba peoples)
 800CE
 Naturalistic sculpture –
1050CE
 Continuous dynasty
 Crowned Head of a
King, Ife, Yoruba, c.
12th- 15th century CE,
Zinc brass, lost-wax
method

10. Ife
 Head Said to
Represent the
Usurper
Lajuwa, Ife,
Yoruba, c.
1200-1300CE
 Preserved in
the oni’s
palace

11. Benin
 City, 150 miles southeast of Ife
 Oral histories: 1170 CE, Prince Oranimiyan
sent to rule Benin (by oni of Ife).
 1485 – Portugal begins trading with Benin
 Ivory, forest products…slaves
 1897 – British sacked/burned royal palace
after massacre of trade negotiators
 Early Period: 1400-1550 (influenced by Ife)
 Middle Period: 1550-1700CE (increasingly
stylized
 Late Period: 1700-1897CE (large/heavy)

12. Benin
 Head= symbolic
center of:
 Wisdom
 Intelligence
 Spiritual
communication
 King-like “Great
Head”
 Memorial Head
of an Oba,
Benin, 16th
century, brass,
9”

13. Altar, Edo Culture, Nigeria, 1959. Photo by Eliot Elisofon.

14. Plaque: Warrior Chief Flanked by Warriors and
Attendants, Benin, Nigeria, 1550-1650CE, Brass
 One of
approximately 900
examples!
 1897 Punitive
Expedition (British
found in
storehouse)
 http://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=tmrdunRXfbw

15. Benin Ivory
• Hip Mask
• Iyoba (queen mother)
• Iron, Ivory, and copper 9 3/8”
• Middle Period, c. 1550CE

16. Jenné (in Mali) – 200 CE -
Present
 Great Friday
Mosque, 13th
century (rebuilt
1907)

17. Great Zimbabwe
 Conical Tower
in Imba Huru or
“Great
Enclosure”
 18’ diameter
on tower
 30’ high
 800 ft long
masonry wall
 17’ feet thick
base
 1200-1400CE

18. Great Zimbabwe
 Bird Monolith (top part)
 1200-1400CE, soapstone
 Over 5’ tall

19. Kongo Kingdom
 1482 – Portuguese
encounter
 Early 17th century
 9 ½” x 28 ¼”, raffia