The Bakor Monoliths: Endangered Heritage

Enlightening little exhibition at the British Museum exploring standing stones, akwanshi or “ancestors in the ground”, from Nigeria.

The exhibition centred, literally, around a figure from the museum’s collection and used it to discuss the importance of these figures, often found in circles facing each other which share distinctive features and rich decoration. Some are still used in the annual New Yam festival to celebrate a successful harvest.

The show also highlighted recent work to digitally survey the existing works and record their physical condition and the environmental issues they face.

It looks at the provenance of the British Museum’s example which had been bought in the 1930s before the export of Nigerian antiquities was prohibited and the history of fakes made for the European market in Cameroon.

Closed 26 March 2023

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