Horse and rider finial
- Object Name
- Horse and rider finial
- Culture / Site
- Igbo Ukwu, excavated from Igbo Richard (burial)
- Medium
- Bronze
- Date
- 8th/early 11th century
- Dimensions
- 14 x 5 cm
- Credit Line
- National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abuja, Nigeria, IR.350
- Section
- The Long Reach of the Sahara/Igbo Ukwu
- Description
This ornament, which would have crowned a staff or pole, is the earliest known representation of a horse and rider from Africa’s central forest region. How the object was made is an open question. Horses cannot survive in the forest for long due to fly-borne disease. It is possible that horses were imported, at great expense, along routes of exchange with the Western Sudan and North Africa. Another possibility is that another object representing a horse and rider was imported, inspiring an artist to make this ornament. The rider is depicted wearing beaded regalia as well as facial scarifications associated today with elite titleholders.