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Shockingly Well-Preserved Things from the Past

Aimee Heidelberg April 15, 2024 28 min

Baked clay spike with cuneiform inscription. — Sumerian Clay Nail Of Entemena, With Cuniform, C. 2400. Louvre Museum. Public Domain.

Kuba Headdress (late 19^th/ early 20^th century)

Beaded headdress, with one strap under the chin and one across the bridge of the nose — Kuba headdress. Late 19th or early 20th century. Brooklyn Museum, CC 3.0.

This mask, on display at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, USA, is a hand-crafted African form made of cowrie shells and beads on a raffia-hide base. While some of the shells have been torn off, there is a hole in the raffia on the left side, and only two of the original three tassels remain, it is in remarkably good condition. The Kuba people lived in the area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The kingdom was made up of small, individual states that developed a federation in about 1600 under Shyaam aMbulaNgoong The Great. The Kuba, under this combined kingdom, lived in an era of stability, and thanks to an abundance of natural resources, wealth. This wealth and peace allowed the arts to thrive. The wealthy commissioned fine textiles and headdresses like this, leaving an artistic legacy, blending Kuba traditions with artistic evolution.