Product Description
Djenne Terracotta Vessel, Mali
This beautifully sculpted urn originates from the Djenne-Djenno also known as Jenne-Jeno or Djenne, a historic city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in the Niger River Valley, Mali. It is made of ancient terracotta, sculpted by hand, with ornamental Djenne symbols around the body structure. This particular one might have belonged to a wealthy family near the trading market. They used the urn to put cowrie shells, and other forms of currencies and carried it around. Some of the population would use objects such as these utilitarian objects in their possession as a sign of status. Since it was very difficult to live or trade without showing its status, the population should showcase either scarifications on the body itself, or adorn their body with jewleries and attires, coifs, or carry an object of value.
Unique in their simplicity and design, these Djenne vessels came in various sizes, and may have been receptacles for offerings or simply used as a household item. These everyday useful objects often go unnoticed by most collectors, who have been slow to fully explore and appreciate this symbolic and significant part of Africa’s artistic heritage.
Djenne was once a prospering city, and also the trade center of this region and it was located at the the Inland Delta of the Niger river, which was the heart of the Mali Empire between the 12th and 16th centuries. The art of the inner delta of the Niger, the region formed by the triangle of the cities of Mopti, Ke Macina, and Djenne, bears witness to an astonishing richness of invention and a lively concern with detail, but declined and was abandoned by 1400. Items of cast brass and forged iron, clay vessels, and figures like this one survived. They testify to what scholars believe was a richly varied and highly sophisticated urban society.
Description
This beautifully sculpted urn originates from the Djenne-Djenno also known as Jenne-Jeno or Djenne, a historic city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in the Niger River Valley, Mali. It is made of ancient terracotta, sculpted by hand, with ornamental Djenne symbols around the body structure. This particular one might have belonged to a wealthy family near the trading market. They used the urn to put cowrie shells, and other forms of currencies and carried it around. Some of the population would use objects such as these utilitarian objects in their possession as a sign of status. Since it was very difficult to live or trade without showing its status, the population should showcase either scarifications on the body itself, or adorn their body with jewleries and attires, coifs, or carry an object of value.
Unique in their simplicity and design, these Djenne vessels came in various sizes, and may have been receptacles for offerings or simply used as a household item. These everyday useful objects often go unnoticed by most collectors, who have been slow to fully explore and appreciate this symbolic and significant part of Africa’s artistic heritage.
Djenne was once a prospering city, and also the trade center of this region and it was located at the the Inland Delta of the Niger river, which was the heart of the Mali Empire between the 12th and 16th centuries. The art of the inner delta of the Niger, the region formed by the triangle of the cities of Mopti, Ke Macina, and Djenne, bears witness to an astonishing richness of invention and a lively concern with detail, but declined and was abandoned by 1400. Items of cast brass and forged iron, clay vessels, and figures like this one survived. They testify to what scholars believe was a richly varied and highly sophisticated urban society.
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