Nigeria

Ife Dignitary Sculpted Bust Cirça 1340 Terracotta 19 x 7 x 6 in 48 x 18 x 15 cm Yoruba people; Southwestern Nigeria, West Africa This elegantly worked bust represents a young dignitary with parallel facial striations, which were traditional facial scarifications used by the Ife people. The subject is depicted wearing the traditional regalia worn during that time by an important dignitary of the Ife society. The figure is depicted as a standing young male wearing a heavy-beaded collar around his neck and several heavy strings of beads around the outer edge of his chest. A group of finer necklaces also cover the chest along with a center pendant or badge that indicates his social or official rank. Although very similar artifacts have been excavated around the area of Ife, the most notable site was discovered at the ancestral shrine of Kubolaja in the center heartlands of the Yoruba people. This artifact is a very rare and important archeological find from the Ife civilization. The époque of the Ife civilization is presumed to be from the period between the 12th and 15th centuries. The results of thermoluminescence testing conducted by the ASA research laboratory in Germany show that this artifact was last fired into its present construction approximately 680 years ago, and later purchased by Maxwell Price