Monolith
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.No local tradition or myth provides an explanation for the complex open-air installation of lithic monuments at the site of Tondidarou, a locale that occupied a place of importance among ancient Ghana’s territories. Recent research has suggested that the monoliths such as this example, produced and placed in the landscape during a period of immense social and political change, were innovative experiments in symbolic form. Their authors used iron tools to reshape quartz-rich sandstone from nearby cliffs into cylindrical shafts, which they carved with human attributes. This example features the vertical bridge of a nose terminating in a circular mouth, while other monoliths reference breasts, the pubic area, navel, or phallus.
Artwork Details
- Title: Monolith
- Date: 280–620
- Geography: Mali, Tondidarou
- Medium: Sandstone
- Dimensions: H. 50 13/16 × W 11 7/16 × D. 7 1/2 in., 264.6 lbs (129 × 29 × 19 cm, 120 kg)
- Classification: Stone-Sculpture
- Credit Line: Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, Paris (71.1932.40.67)
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing