{
"data": {
"id": 159000,
"accession_number": "1995.21",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Head, thermoluminescence date 20\u2013620 CE. Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Nok-culture style region, unknown female ceramicist. Terracotta; overall: 38.2 x 20 cm (15 1/16 x 7 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 1995.21",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Head",
"creation_date": "thermoluminescence date 20\u2013620 CE",
"creation_date_earliest": 20,
"creation_date_latest": 620,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Nok-culture style region, unknown female ceramicist"
],
"technique": "terracotta",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 38.2 x 20 cm (15 1/16 x 7 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.382,
"height_inch": 15,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"width": 0.2,
"width_inch": 7,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 663599,
"title": "From the Earth through Her Hands: African Ceramics",
"description": "From the Earth through Her Hands: African Ceramics. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 21, 2024-September 21, 2025).",
"opening_date": "2024-09-21T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Emile Deletaille Antiquaire, Brussels, Belgium, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Emile Deletaille owned this piece by at least 1994. See correspondence 1994-95 between him and Margaret Young-S\u00e1nchez; transit paperwork 11-30-94 in curatorial file.
"
],
"date": "?-1995",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1995",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1995",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This complete head\u2019s bold modeling, deliberate asymmetry, and sensitive expression make it one of the finest known examples of Nok sculpture.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "More than 500 such sculptures\u2014often full figures with elaborate hairstyles and jewelry\u2014 have been found in central Nigeria. Named after a discovery site, Nok culture (500 BCE\u2013200 CE or 1500\u20131 BCE) produced the earliest large figurative artworks in Africa outside of Egypt. Little was known about their social context, as they were first found in mining deposits in the 1920s. Archaeological excavations conducted in the 2000s by a German-Nigerian team suggest that many sculptures were deliberately broken and placed under pavements and in pits, indicating ritual practice. Male-centered art histories presumed men made these figurative sculptures; however, they incorporate building and firing techniques practiced only by women.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60779147"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1995.21-head"
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},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Young-S\u00e1nchez, Margaret. \u201cAn Enigmatic Terracotta.\u201d In The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 36, no. 2 (February 1996): 9.",
"page_number": "p. 9",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM1996-02/page/8"
},
{
"citation": "Wilkins, David G., Bernard Schultz, and Katheryn M. Linduff. Art Past, Art Present. 3rd ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 1997, 42, fig. 2-7.",
"page_number": "p. 42, fig. 2-7",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Young-S\u00e1nchez, Margaret. \"The Cleveland Museum of Art.\" In African Arts 30, no. 1 (Winter 1997): 69.",
"page_number": "p. 69",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Wilkins, David G., Bernard Schultz, and Katheryn M. Linduff. Art Past, Art Present. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001, 28, fig. 2-7.",
"page_number": "p. 28, fig. 2-7",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Donley, Gregory M., \"A New Face for African Art\", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 42 no. 04, April 2002",
"page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6-7",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2002-04/page/n5"
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantine. South of the Sahara: Selected Works of African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003, 87, color plate 28.",
"page_number": "p. 87, color plate 28",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Wilkins David G, et al. Art Past, Art Present. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005, 28, fig. 2-7.",
"page_number": "p. 42, fig. 2-7",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 32",
"url": ""
}
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:13:51.201000"
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