THE THREE IGBO SITES

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Three sites located in adjacent compounds of the three Anozie brothers, Isaiah, Richard and Jonah, were excavated and, for the sake of convenience, are referred to as Igbo Isaiah, Igbo Richard and Igbo Jonah. The original site of Igbo Isaiah produced most of the beautiful bronze objects. These include a roped pot  (Fig. 1), an altar stand  (Fig. 2), beaded chains and crotals, a bowl on stand  (Fig. 3), a shell surmounted by an animal (Fig. 4), a small crescent-shaped bowl  (Fig. 5), a pendant, probably representing a ram’s head, and a pendant representing a human head with lineal marks (Fig. 6). All these objects were found on one level suggesting that they belong to the same complex. It is believed, from the position in which many of them were found, that the collection constitutes a store for shrine furniture, between its ritual uses. Shaw observes that "Many of the bronze objects seem to have been wrapped in some sort of fabric". This store was abandoned for no certain reason until it was first discovered probably in 1922.

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The site of Igbo Richard, although it yielded much information about Igbo culture, its priest-king institution and its burial custom, yielded little in terms of art objects. Here, the tomb of a priest king, lined possibly with carved wooden panels, was uncovered. The body of the inmate is believed to have been clothed in ceremonial regalia and sat on a stool with the two hands supported by copper brackets. The corpse wore a breast plate, copper anklets and strings of beads, a beaded head-dress and a bronze crown. In front of him a bronze leopard skull on a copper rod  was stuck in the ground. The arrangement was then covered, first with wooden panels and then with earth. From the tooth enamel found it appears that there must have been at least five individuals buried above the roof of the main tomb.
We have illustrated nothing here from the site of Igbo Jonah, which is considered to have been a disused pit. However, one of the most ornamented pots in the Nigerian pottery corpus was found there.

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IGBO UKWU Culture