Double-egg pendant
- Object Name
- Double-egg pendant
- Culture / Site
- Igbo Ukwu, excavated from Igbo Isaiah (shrine storehouse)
- Medium
- Leaded bronze, copper wire, glass beads
- Date
- 9th/10th century
- Dimensions
- 1 x 6 x 5.5 in
- Credit Line
- National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abuja, Nigeria, IS.367. Photograph © Dirk Bakker/Bridgeman Images
- Section
- The Long Reach of the Sahara/Igbo Ukwu
- Description
This pendant of a bird perched atop two large eggs was excavated at the site of a shrine storehouse at Igbo Olokun. Its textured surface highlights the artistry and technological skill of the city’s bronze-casting workshops. The raised ropes and dots that embellish the pendant evoke the abundant number of beads, also found at Igbo Ukwu, that circulated along local and long-distance trade routes. Many of the copper alloy objects found at the site were designed to be decorated with glass beads; this pendant of a bird and two eggs was found alongside yellow beads and copper wires that attached through loops cast along the object’s side.