Early Ceramics from Calabar, Nigeria Towards a History of Nsibidi Christopher Slogar All photos by Christopher Slogar except where otherwise noted ecent excavations in the region of Calabar, Nigeria, have brought to light an important corpus of archaeological ceramics, including vessels, headrests, and anthropomorphic objects. Interpretation of these ceramics bears upon our understanding of the graphic system known as nsibidi (or nsibiri), a central and defining characteristic of Cross River visual culture still employed by men and women throughout the region today. Considered one of the indigenous African scripts, nsibidi records, transmits, and conceals various kinds of information using a wide, fluid vocabulary of geometric and naturalistic signs placed on objects including calabashes, brassware, textiles (figs. 1â2), masquerade paraphernalia (fig. 3), and wood sculpture, and on surfaces including the ground, the walls of buildings, and even human skin. Yet little is known of the history of nsibidi prior to the early twentieth century, when it caught the attention of colonial officials.1 The Calabar ceramics, incorporating such a great variety of discrete motifsâincluding arcs, arrows, chevrons, concentric circles, crosses, lozenges, spirals, and starsâevidence an iconography readily comparable to nsibidi. Moreover, the decoration found on the anthropomorphic figurines suggests that
End of preview. The entire article is 12 pages. To view the full-text, please rent this article to continue.
/lp/mit-press/early-ceramics-from-calabar-nigeria-towards-a-history-of-nsibidi-lGgpn9y0wc
Welcome to DeepDyve! Rent Premier Research Articles and Save Up to 90%
Early Ceramics from Calabar, Nigeria: Towards a History of Nsibidi
Slogar, Christopher
Follow African Arts
, Volume 40 (1)
MIT Press – Mar 1, 2007
More Info
More Like This Article
View All dataSource[]=actageo&dataSource[]=aspet&dataSource[]=aaos&dataSource[]=aacc&dataSource[]=aacr&dataSource[]=aea&dataSource[]=aip&dataSource[]=ajnr&dataSource[]=ams&dataSource[]=aps_physical&dataSource[]=appi_book&dataSource[]=appi_journal&dataSource[]=apha&dataSource[]=asip&dataSource[]=asm&dataSource[]=asn&dataSource[]=aspb&dataSource[]=avs&dataSource[]=annual_reviews&dataSource[]=arxiv&dataSource[]=acm&dataSource[]=berghahn&dataSource[]=cabi&dataSource[]=clinical_trials&dataSource[]=dailymed&dataSource[]=degruyter&dataSource[]=du_press&dataSource[]=esa&dataSource[]=eu_press&dataSource[]=elsevier&dataSource[]=emerald&dataSource[]=ejtr&dataSource[]=emea&dataSource[]=epo&dataSource[]=faseb&dataSource[]=gsa&dataSource[]=health_affairs&dataSource[]=hindawi&dataSource[]=imanager&dataSource[]=imedpub&dataSource[]=informa_healthcare&dataSource[]=informs&dataSource[]=iop&dataSource[]=iucr&dataSource[]=iospress&dataSource[]=jbjs&dataSource[]=leftcoast&dataSource[]=lu_press&dataSource[]=mesharpe&dataSource[]=mary_ann_liebert&dataSource[]=medline&dataSource[]=mit_press&dataSource[]=nature&dataSource[]=oxford&dataSource[]=pier_professional&dataSource[]=pnas&dataSource[]=portlandpress&dataSource[]=psyc_articles&dataSource[]=psyc_books&dataSource[]=psyc_critiques&dataSource[]=plos_journal&dataSource[]=pubmed_central&dataSource[]=rsna&dataSource[]=rockefeller&dataSource[]=rcn&dataSource[]=ria&dataSource[]=rsc&dataSource[]=sage&dataSource[]=spie&dataSource[]=springer_journal&dataSource[]=springer&dataSource[]=taylor_francis&dataSource[]=aps&dataSource[]=the_scientist&dataSource[]=uc_press&dataSource[]=uspto_abstract&dataSource[]=wiley&dataSource[]=pct
© 2012 DeepDyve, Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy
