Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1938.15.23

Face mask [ZM 15/05/2013]

1938.15.23

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Face mask [ZM 15/05/2013]
Long description
Wooden mask of a human face, wearing a headband, with the eye area carved out and a row of holes all around the edge of the mask, a twisted length of plant fibre is attached at through two of the holes. Stained or painted black on the outer face. [ZM 15/05/2013]
Geographical reference
Nigeria
Africa > Western Africa > Nigeria
South-east Nigeria Akwa Ibom State Ikot Ekpene
Cultural groups
Ibibio
Person
Field collector Gwilym Iwan Jones
PRM source Gwilym Iwan Jones
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1937
Date collected
1937
Acquisition information
Donated: 1938
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Material Plant Fibre, Process Perforated, Process Stained, Process Painted
Dimensions
Width: max 164 mm, Height: max 258 mm, Depth: max 105 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1938.15.23
Research and responses

According to G.I. Jones, who donated this object, ekpo is the Ibibio term for ghost and ghost masquerades (see Jones' discussion of ghost masquerades on pp 66 to 70 of The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge, 1984) [ZM 25/04/2013]

Search terms: Mask

Further items to explore