adu zatua

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Figure

The elongated wooden figure depicts a representative of the female upper class. She is wearing a high crown, the shape and design of which is modelled on a palm leaf, and heavy gold jewellery that stretches the earlobes. The broad golden necklace is recognisable by marks in the neck area. Such symmetrically conceived figures in the typical posture with bent knees and hands in front of the belly were made by the Niha, inhabitants of the small island of Nias, located to the west of Sumatra. They are ancestor figures that function as a kind of container for the spirit of the ancestors, so that it could be located and sacrificed.

Data Provider
Museen Freiburg Show original at data provider

Cataloguing data

Object type
figures (representations)
Dimensions
Height: 350.0 mm
Width: 60.0 mm
Depth: 45.0 mm
Material/Technique
Wood, Carving
Current location
Museum Natur und Mensch
Inventory number
IV/2194
Related object(s)

Provenance and sources

  • Production
    when
    End of the 19th century
  • Change of legal title:
    Purchase
    when
    1899
  • Assignment to a curated holding:
    South East Asia

Information about the record

Legal status metadata
CC0 1.0 DEED
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