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Pitt Rivers Museum

1925.12.4

Head ornament of large lumps of 'medicine', and a lump of dufa with a cowrie embedded in it.


1925.12.4

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Head ornament of large lumps of 'medicine', and a lump of dufa with a cowrie embedded in it.
Geographical reference
North Ashanti
Cultural groups
Asante
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1925
Date collected
By 1925
Acquisition information
Donated: 1925
Materials and processes
Material String, Material Cowrie Shell, Material Wood Plant, Material Cotton Seed Fibre Yarn Plant, Process Knotted, Process Strung
Dimensions
Length: max 425 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1925.12.4
Research and responses

This object was examined by Fiona Savage (Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, UEA). The visit took place 30/09/2015. Fiona observed that the cowrie appears to be either ground down or cut away at the back. The pendent acts as a skeuomorph for a gold weight. [NC 14/12/2015]

Search terms: Religion, Ornament, Medicine, Cordage, Divination Religion, Head Ornament, Religious Object, Divination Accessory, Amulet