Horse skull
Nigeria, Igbo - Izzi
sold
EUR 1,000
Provenance
René and Maud Garcia, Paris, FranceSize
L: 50 cm
L: 19.7 inch
Description
bone, wickerwork, pigments, base
The appreciation of horses as particularly precious and prestigious animals has a long tradition among the Igbo.
In addition to their traditional use as riding or pack animals, in more recent times they were used exclusively as particularly costly sacrificial animals, which only rich people could afford, even if for burial or for adoption of a title. Accordingly it is known, that in the context of funeral services for high-esteemed deceased a horse was killed and its skin used as shroud.
Horse skulls, as well as the skulls of sacrificed buffaloes, goats and sheep, were placed as ornaments on the outer walls of the men’s house or on the altar of the ancestors.