African elephant bone sculpture

Hi, I picked up this sculpture, the seller though it was whale bone and Polynesian, but it's obviously not bone of a marine mammal.
Nor Polynesian in style.
It looks like elephant bone or hippo bone and west African. Akan maybe?.
As they keep bone or ivory house fetish idols with similar carving of a number of gods in their homes and the carving style looks similar. Any input ?

 

@2manybooks
@Any Jewelry

 

Welcome, D'Manchago. What is the size?

 

Not too far off, a related culture, a bit further west.
It is a Dayak carving, from Borneo. Judging from the grey gritty structure seen on the back of the head and legs it is antler, which is often used by the Dayak.

 

The same style, only in wood:

https://www.appletreeauction.com/auction-lot/dayak-ancestral-wood-carved-figure-20-1-2-h_FF55A56838

 

And a very nicely carved one, antler like yours:

https://unikaborneo.com/index.php/product/dayak-bahau-maternity-figure/

 

It is about 27cm long and about 7.5 cm wide at the widest in the head .
It's got a slight curve in it that follows the twist of the bone, it is half the bone sk one side or it, the back s open, you can see in the pictures, Looks like the shin of an elephant or a hippo.

 

No it's not antler. It's definitely a bone, the bone of a large mammal.
But it's not anything made in Borneo, the figure has braided hair and is carved in the style of such things from the western part of Africa but from which group I'm not 100% sure as Akan, , gbe, Yoruba and do on have very similar idols

 

https://www.galerie-artculture6.com...f_tiche_cameroun_cm_afrique_animisme_animiste

Here is the same large bone and similar hashed patterns on the body , from the bamum / bamun people of western Cameroon . (Same ones that had a Eurocentric monarch in the 19th century and as such produced many curious cultural things)
It is a much more intricate carvings , . But similar concept but these idols are all over West Africa in many cultures
Here another listed as Akan
https://puces-privees.com/vitrine/v...299/statuette-traditionnelle-akan-en-os,15253

I feel more towards Akan, bamum carving is much more detailed, as is shown in the bamum idol in the link.

 

Can you please post a clear, close-up photo of the bottom of the figure? That may clarify whether it is bone or antler. It looks like antler to me, which would make a Dayak attribution more likely.

 

Antler can be distinguished from a typical long bone by the presence of the spongy interior structure throughout the length of the antler. There is no medullary cavity - the hollow channel containing marrow - in antler. While spongy bone does occur at the ends of long bones, I do not see any evidence of a medullary cavity in your carving.

elk antler human long bone


The overall shape of your carving fits the shape of the antlers of the Sambar deer, native to Borneo.


https://www.sambardeer.com/training-course/reviews


There is only one deer species that is native to Africa - the Barbary Stag - which occurs in the mountainous areas of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In addition to being a much less common material in sub-Saharan artifacts, the structure of the Barbary stag's antlers is a less likely fit to the shape of your carving.

 

Thanks, Yeah it's a large bone, not an atler. based on the grain of the bone and the narrow it looks like hippo bone or elephante, I'll have to compare other examples of the two animal species I have

 

The Barbary or Atlas stag was (virtually) extinct in North Africa. About ten years ago it was reintroduced from Spain, and the small herd has been protected ever since. They wouldn't export parts of this rare animal to West Africa to satisfy the need for local carving.
So would love to see photos that prove it is bone.

I'll see if I can find info about the Barbary stag in English.

 

Found it:

https://www.tap.info.tn/en/Portal-Top-News-EN/19580652-barbary-stag