Divination container "opon igede ifa" ·  Nigeria, Yoruba · ID: 3037605

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.

Comparing literature

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