Divination container "opon igede ifa"

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Description

light wood, greyish brown patina, ring-shaped base, side handles partly in openwork-design, lid handle with bow-shaped contour, unusual: lid and corpus entirely covered with delicate ornaments in bas-relief, prevailing motif: intricate wavebands, even the rim of the bowl provided with fine herring-bone pattern, slightly dam., missing parts at the rim of the bowl, crack at the same place;
such boxes were used for storing palm nuts, the “opele” divination chain and other “ifa” oracle attributes.

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Comparing literature

Eisenhofer, Stefan (Hg.), Kulte, Künstler, Könige in Afrika, Linz 1997, p. 167

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