Introduction

3Much debate has been exercised over the question of the termination of the manufacture of both these ivory and stone objects, tied to the conquest by Mande invaders and the overturning of the political and social order in the second half of the sixteenth century. Were the events cataclysmic, as earlier scholars had suggested, or were they of no consequence to the arts and economy of the region, as some later scholars have argued (Hart 1995; Mark 2007)? Specifically, do these events suggest an end, or a diminishing, or even a re-energizing of the artistic enterprise of the Sapi? In a separate article, I have tackled the thorny question of cultural disjunction in the sixteenth century (Lamp forthcoming 2021).

4Regarding the beginnings, early dates for the ivory work found in European collections are relatively obvious, corresponding to the arrival of the Europeans on the west coast of Africa, but recent studies have posed a much greater antiquity for the stone sculpture, problematizing the nexus.

The Protagonists in this Drama: The Sapi and the Mani

8Elsewhere (Lamp 2018) I have suggested that that the coming of the Europeans at the end of the fifteenth century created markets on the coast that the Mande/Mani were eager to exploit, and they did so ruthlessly, with superior weaponry. My position, which I outline in more detail in a separate article, is simply that after what seems to be a relatively peaceful period of Sapi rule on the coast of Sierra Leone and Guinea, the invasion by the Mani could not have resulted in “things as usual,” and that, although “destruction” is clearly too strong a word – as we know that Temne, Bullom, and Baga society continued on to the present day – “disruption” cannot be denied, and cultural disjunction seems obvious from both the testimonies and an analysis of the material culture itself (Lamp 2018, forthcoming 2021).

Dating of the Stone and Ivory Sculpture

12There is some evidence in the inland corpus of stone figures of the prior arrival of peoples from the north. Clearly the incoming Mande would have reached the inland Kissi area long before reaching the coast. The hundreds of figures from the Kissi area sporting turbans (Lamp 2018: fig. 16) suggest Islamic influence, as noted above. But we do not know that the Mande who entered the forests of southern Guinea and eastern Sierra Leone were Muslim at this point. Álvares, in 1615, stated that the Mani had introduced the bow and arrow to the Sapi on the coast (Álvares 1615[1990]: fol. 77), but probably this had been introduced far earlier in the interior, as several stone figures from the Kissi area are shown holding a bow (Lamp 2018: fig. 71), though coastal figures do not. These examples indicate perhaps Mande influence inland but do not prove Mande involvement in the carving.

15But Mark’s critical source is a passage by Manuel Álvares, in 1615 ([1990]: fol. 55v):

“Because of their ability and intelligence some of them have the gift of artistic imagination… The variety of their handicrafts is due to their artistry. [They make] tagarras [karo in Temne, “a wooden bowl”], which are large dishes of wood, most unusual and beautiful, and that here are used at table… spoons made of ivory, beautifully finished, the handles carved in entertaining shapes, such as the heads of animals, birds or their corofis (idols) [aŋ-kǝrfi in Temne], all done with such perfection that it has to be seen to be believed; betes [a-gbet in Temne, sing.] or rachons, [probably do-tshom in Baga, sing.] which are round and are used as low seats, and are made in curious shapes to resemble lizards and other small creatures. In sum, they are, in their own way, skilled at handicrafts.”

16It is possible that the decorative ivory spoons mentioned here were of the same quality and form as those that ended up in European collections (Fig. 1c), and also possible that these were either made for the Portuguese to export, or served as prestige items for local African display. The mention of decorative seats may call to mind the round stools of the Baga, which Hart has compared to the Sapi ivory saltcellars in their form, supported by figures, and especially decorated with figures of lizards or crocodiles. Álvares does not specify which group he describes here, but it is in the general context of his discussion of the Baga and Temne coast from the Rio Pongo to the Sierra Leone Estuary. Still, it is a stretch to imply that since they had such stools, and fine wooden bowls, that they were also still carving ivory saltcellars and trumpets for sale to the Europeans. Another caution about Álvares, that others have also pointed out, is that we are never sure whether he is writing about the present or telescoping into the past, as he borrowed heavily from earlier writers and the recollections of aged informants, and often seems to be writing in the “ethnographic present” (Horta 2011).

17Álvares (1615[1990]: fol. 64r–64v) referred to various types of carved images, apparently among the Temne, judging from the vocabulary, probably on the northern coast of Sierra Leone:

“Their intercessors are idols too, for instance the images as portraits of their parents, children, wives, brothers, and so on. There is such a collection of these images that they have to be seen to be appreciated. Some are hewn out of blocks of wood with skill, and show the face and other features… Some are sculpted on small stones or on rocks.”

18This testimony could suggest a continuing stone-carving tradition in the early seventeenth century (“are sculpted”), but it could also refer to previously-carved stone figures currently in use in shrines. It should be noted, however, that no collecting of ancient stone figures has ever been documented on the northern coast of Sierra Leone or northward into coastal Guinea.

Location of Discoveries

19Although several early sources mention the carving of objects in ivory for the Portuguese, including saltcellars and trumpets, no writer identifies the exact location of this manufacture. Various sites are indicated to be prime sources of carved ivory, for example, Mitombo (present-day Port Loko), but with no specification of the exact type of object. We do not know exactly where the saltcellars and trumpets were carved, or by whom.

22No controlled archaeological study has ever been undertaken, although many figures come by way of finders or traders who have stories to tell about their discoveries, not always easy to corroborate. Not a single written report is available from a participant or an eyewitness (primary source) to any excavation. There are secondary reports of excavations, and there are primary and secondary sources on the site of collection – a few specific to the town, chiefdom, or district, which may or may not be the site of excavation or ancient origin.

23The majority of ancient stone figures fall into three basic categories of style, which I have described in detail elsewhere (Lamp 2018). I also mapped the origins of documented stone figures, drawing from the available collection registers. They center around three distinct areas: Sherbro Island (coastal style), central Mende land in Bo District (central style), and a large area surrounding Kissidougou in Guinée Forestiere, including the adjacent Kono District in Sierra Leone (inland style). The critical datum revealed in this mapping of sites is that no collection of an ancient stone figure has been credibly documented at the Sierra Leone Estuary, the Freetown Peninsula, or the area of Port Loko (Mitombo in the early sources), nor anywhere on the coast north of the Jong River opposite Sherbro Island. Examples have been found in eastern Temneland, but none are in the coastal style that is comparable to the style of the ivories.

24Note, again, that there are no primary sources on the excavation of any ancient stone figure; there are secondary reports of excavations, and there are primary and secondary sources on the site of collection – a few specific to the town, but most to only the region – which may or may not be the site of excavation or ancient origin.

25It is the coastal style of Sapi stone figures, centered at Sherbro Island, which concerns us here, in relation to the ivory carvings, clearly executed and procured on the coast. If the ivory artists and the stone artists were one and the same, it would follow that the ivory was also carved on Sherbro Island, by the southern Bullom. But the early sources on the region, in reports and on maps, seem to focus specially on the Freetown estuary and connecting rivers such as the Mitombo, leading to present-day Port Loko.

27So some of the earliest writers were aware of this large island, roughly the same size as the Freetown Peninsula, but they neglected to name it, and they don’t seem to have known it as well as they knew the Freetown Peninsula, with its deep, natural harbor on the north side, and surrounding shores of the Sierra Leone Estuary. To my knowledge, no writer specified a market in carved ivory coming specifically from Sherbro Island or the opposite shore of the mainland.

29Thus, we are left with a disjuncture between the written reports focusing mainly on the Sierra Leone Estuary from which the majority of trade in all sorts of goods was conducted, and the collection reports on the stone figures that focus on the Sherbro area.

Cross-Examination: Same Artists in Stone, Ivory, Terracotta, and Wood?

30There is some very rare evidence, apart from similarities with the ivory carvings, that the carving of the coastal stone figures did continue through the coming of the Europeans, thus coinciding with the carving in ivory for the Europeans. One figure in the Baltimore Museum of Art appears to be holding a European tankard (Fig. 3c). Metal tankards in this style, usually in pewter, did not become popular until the sixteenth century in Europe, and they were mainly used for beer, echoing, in their shape, the medieval wooden casks with iron staves around the middle. Once they came into fashion, they were everywhere. Álvares, in 1615 ([1990]: fol. 61v), wrote for what seems to be the Temne area, judging from vocabulary used, that “For use at table, the richer sort possess basins, and Flemish tankards for drinking from.”

31Hart (1995: 27) has dismissed this example as “a slender foundation on which to claim positively that… stone sculpture continued in Sierra Leone in the early 16th century,” because it is so idiosyncratic, therefore of dubious authenticity, in his view. But it has been examined thoroughly by conservators, who can see no evidence of forgery. The exception cannot be simply dismissed in order to maintain an argument. This figure is in a “classical” style, not decadent or aberrant in any stylistic way, and one must assume that it comes from a larger, continuing tradition, and is not isolated. The fact that European imagery are not commonly found on the stone figures should not be surprising, as the stone sculpture was clearly meant for an indigenous context, reflecting traditional African phenomena.

32Hart (1995: 28, 33–35) dismissed comparison with the stone figures on the argument that the ivories are more delicately carved. But this is simply a function of the medium. Ivory can be carved in extremely delicate configurations, but steatite, a talc-schist, is quite brittle, like slate, which shatters easily, and the carving of figures must be restricted to larger volumes, without great delicacy, except in relief, where it can be supported. If one considers the restrictions of medium, the coastal-style stone figures are almost identical in style to the ivory figures carved on saltcellars, trumpets, spoons, and other items.

33Hart also argues that the ivory figures are often clothed, whereas the stone figures are not, but there are many exceptions to this, especially in the central style (e.g. Fig. 3b) and to some extent in the interior style. There are quite a few figures wearing a similar type of garment that is almost identical to that found on ivory liturgical vessels (called a “pyx”) carved by the Sapi for the Portuguese, and depicting Portuguese dress (Fig. 1d; see also Bassani & Fagg 1988: figs. 75–78, 137–141, 176, and cat. nos. 57–59). As for the general nudity in the stone figures, one must note that the ivory carvings were meant to represent, for the most part, the Portuguese, and were made for the Portuguese to carry home, whereas the stone figures were meant to represent the ancestors of the Sapi, and were made for their ritual use. Ancestor figures throughout Africa are almost always represented nude. Furthermore, as I have already shown, the antiquity of stone figures greatly precedes the ivory carvings and the coming of the Europeans.

34There is evidence of European imagery in the stone figures that seems to come directly from the practice of Sapi artists carving ivory saltcellars for the Europeans, and evidence of indigenous Sierra Leone imagery in the saltcellars as well, suggesting that the carvers of these ivory masterpieces also carved for the indigenous market. The imagery carved in relief on the Sapi-Portuguese ivory trumpets (oliphants) is almost exclusively European in derivation (Fig. 1a) – the only exceptions being crocodiles and possibly snakes (never in the tableaux in bas-relief, but in the 3-dimensional ornamentation). It is implied in the stylistic categories developed by Curnow (1983) and Bassani & Fagg (1988), that the saltcellars and the oliphants may not have been carved by the same set of artists. Were the artists of the ivory saltcellars, in fact, the same artists who created stone figures in the same late period?

Mutual Imagery – European Sources?

35There are a few examples that suggest the adoption of Portuguese imagery found on the ivory saltcellars directly into the carving of stone. If so, obviously, this would indicate a continuation of the stone carving tradition beyond the arrival of the Europeans on the Sierra Leone coast, and possibly well into the mid-sixteenth century.

36Hart (1995) acknowledged the existence of carved spiraled fluting on a Sapi figure “similar to the spiral decoration found on so many Sapi-Portuguese salt-cellars and horns,” suggesting that it could indicate a coeval connection between the ivory carving and the stone carving. The problem with this example is that it is fluting (Fig. 3c) rather than gadrooning, which is what we see on the socles of the ivory saltcellars. The fluting may derive from European images, but not from any extant Sapi ivory carving.

37There are, however, some vague examples of spiraled gadrooning on the socles of several Sapi stone figures in the coastal style (Fig. 4), two from the Museum der Kulturen, Basel, acquired in 1901 and 1907 (already published in 1908 by Rütimeyer: Fig. 6), and others from private collections. These are rare, indeed, but what is surprising is that there are any, given the complete difference in function and patronage. This almost certainly derives from Portuguese gadrooning (Figs. 11d, 11f), as there are no known precedents in other art of the region, thus it is further evidence of the continuation of stone carving into the era of European contact.

38A kind of heavy twisted rope appears in both the ivory carvings (Fig. 5a) and the stone figures, often interwoven with upright staves, forming spaces, sometimes held apart by human hands. To what kind of rope this refers is unclear – perhaps a sort of nautical rope of Portuguese import. Indigenous peoples also for long used ropes, for example in fishing, and in making rope, but in the known examples it is not a thick rope, but rather light rope or twine, and they did not have large boats necessitating nautical rope to secure a ship to a dock. Several stone figures seem to be holding ropes, but one in particular (Fig. 6c), clearly holds a twisted rope, from which are suspended three crotal bells. I show these examples not because they are conclusive of identical content, but to put them on record for further analysis and research.

39Some of these examples are undeniably European in origin, and, in some cases, clearly Portuguese. Others are tenuous, and would require further examination. Quantitatively, one can say that the Portuguese influence upon the Sapi stone figures is small, but significant in suggesting some continuity in the production of the stone figures. The Sapi content in the Sapi-Portuguese ivories, on the other hand, is certain and pervasive.

Mutual Imagery – Indigenous Sources?

41Compare the finial configuration on one ivory saltcellar (Fig. 6a) to the imagery in one stone carving (Fig. 6b): in the stone figure, seven heads surround the figure on the ground and two more are suspended by a sling from the head of the central figure. The imagery in stone compares with the funeral ceremony described by Valentim Fernandes, in 1506–1510 ([1951]: 90), among the Sapi, the commemoration of the deeds of a warrior-king:

“They place the deceased seated in a chair with most of the garments he owns... and they place a shield in his hand and in the other a spear and a sword in his belt. And if he is a man who has killed many men in battle, they put all the skulls of the men he has killed in front of him.”

43There are also other images of decapitation in the stone figures, such as a man seated on a stool, with the decapitated heads around him, and a crocodile crawling up the back of the stool (Fig. 6c). This figure even more closely resembles the description given by Fernandes, perhaps the cadaver seated on his stool.

45There is a considerable number of stone figures, seemingly in the coastal style, that combine anthropomorphic and zoomorphic features. These seem to have a human face and body, but they have a large open mouth with bared teeth, and often the long, pointed ears of a canine or feline (Fig. 7d). Others seem more zoological, but usually with some anthropomorphic features. Among the Sapi ivory carvings there is also a number of zoomorphic human figures or anthropomorphic animal figures. In the collection of the Seattle Art Museum is an ivory figure (Fig. 7c) that was long thought to be the handle of a blade but may actually be simply an independent figure, or the finial of a staff, as it is too large to have been decoration for a saltcellar. Here the anthropomorphic head, with its dressed coiffure, has a wide-open jaw with exposed teeth. Two ivory saltcellars bear finials depicting an animal with a very long jaw, exposing a long row of teeth. One of these, of only the front legs and head, seems to be an elephant (Figs. 1b, 9f); although the jaw is damaged, there are the remains of what appear to be a trunk and two tusks. Another (Fig. 7e), with a long jaw with open, bared teeth, is exaggerated and could be any number of animals, but does have some characteristics of a feline, with a healthy circle of heavy teeth, pointed round ears, and a long tail reaching to the ground. Several stone figures also depict anthropomorphic beasts with long jaws. One is shown with its hands raised to the sides of the head, perhaps a human figure wearing a mask (Tagliafferi 1989: fig. 82). There appear to be short horns curving forward in the manner of ram’s horns, diagnostic of several twentieth-century masks of this region. Others are somewhat similar although the figures appear to be grasping the snout, but they could also be masks.

48The Janus figure is a common motif in the stone figures as are Janus heads on the ivory human figures (Figs. 7e, 9c), and also opposing figures of both humans and animals (Fig. 1c). Again, whether it means the same in both genres is difficult to tell. But it is a common motif in African art to the present, and is frequently found in twentieth century Sierra Leone figural sculpture. In my field research among the Temne, I found that it can represent dual vision – forward into the physical world that we live in, and backward into the spiritual world of the ancestors and ethereal spiritual beings.

49On the stone carvings we sometimes see a curious motif of a circle on the face, and elsewhere on the head, often a series of concentric circles (Figs. 9a, 9b, 11b). One ivory figure on a salt cellar shows a similar circle on the forehead (Fig. 9c). A similar circle appears on the body of saltcellars (Figs. 1b, 9c). Like the Janus head, the circle is a universal motif. But I know of no precedent on the face in Luso-Portuguese or Western European art. It does not appear frequently on the Sapi carvings, and the meaning is not clear. But since the circles on the face in both the ivory figure and the stone figures were carved by Sierra Leonean artists, it is not unreasonable to infer that they may have the same meaning.

50Interlacing cords or arabesques are found throughout the corpus of both stone and ivory sculpture (Figs. 5b, 5e). A single interlace of two strands on one ivory saltcellar in the British Museum (Figs. 8e, 10b) may replicate that found on the chests of the female initiates of the Bondo or Sande association (Figs. 5c, 5d), who are said to “die” when they enter the initiation. It is also found on several twentieth century Temne sculptures representing young women at their initiation (Fig. 5f).

52The images of the weaponry in the stone figures of both the coast and the interior contrast with descriptions of Mani weaponry, as described in most detail by d’Almada in 1594 (Fyfe 1964: 44):

“The shields they have are made of reeds and rushes, and are big enough to cover a man completely; their swords are short, they have a knife instead of a dagger, and they carry another knife tied up to their left arm. They have long iron arrows sharpened at both ends, which enables them to strike both ways. When fighting they have two holsters, which are quivers, with many arrows.”

53The tripod chair that was still often seen in the twentieth century in southern Sierra Leone is depicted frequently in the stone figures (Figs. 6c, 9e) and also in two examples of the ivory saltcellars. The form of the tripod chair consists of two diverging posts attached at the top, with a horizontal beam near the bottom, composing a triangle, and a post at the rear for support. The seated figure would sit on the horizontal beam and lean against the two diverging posts. In one ivory carving, the rear support of the tripod stool is missing (Fig. 8c). In another, the rear support is in the form of an animal, as mentioned above, which does not truly support the chair, as the jaw does not reach the ground (Figs. 1b, 9f, a reconstruction), so it is only an allusion to the tripod chair, perhaps, again, conflating the support of the elephant in royal symbolism.

54A certain kind of necklace is seen commonly on the stone figures (Fig. 9g), and on the ivory figures (Figs. 7b, 11d), for both men and women, suggesting a thin strand suspending a row of long objects, which may be carved wood pendants, or perhaps ivory. There is no evidence that the European merchant seamen and missionaries, all men, wore necklaces on their visit to Sierra Leone. But there is plenty of evidence that the Sapi, both men and women, wore them, in various materials, thus, again, an indigenous origin. Perhaps they are leopard’s teeth, as worn traditionally by Temne chiefs, or, more probably, stone or coral beads, which were documented in the early Portuguese sources such as Álvares in 1615 (1615[1990]: fol. 62): “[Men and women] hang strings of… crystal and coral, etc., around their necks and arms.”

Stylistic Comparisons

55Here we examine the detailed features of the stone figures and the ivory figures for comparison and contrast, as it is in the human body where the greatest articulation can be found. Among the ivory figures, there is considerable homogeneity, which is understandable, as the ivories carved for the Portuguese were executed over a relatively short period of time, perhaps over one or two generations, perhaps in a very restricted geographical area, and conceivably by just a few artists. Kathy Curnow (1983), followed by Bassani and Fagg (1988), discerned three separate schools with possible subdivisions of the ivory saltcellar carvings, simply by stylistic analysis. Among the stone figures there is a vast diversity in style, many idiosyncratic, as the execution of these figures probably ranged over 600 years or more, and covers a large area from the southern coast of Sierra Leone to the forest area of Guinea, and perhaps beyond. It is the coastal style that resembles most the style of the ivory figures, which I use as examples throughout this paper. I select objects here to show the similarities that exist, but there are many hundreds of figures in stone that do not resemble the ivory figures, even from the coastal region. We must keep in mind that most of the Sapi stone figures would not have been carved by the same artists who carved the ivory sculptures for the Portuguese, by virtue of the far deeper time period and the broader geographical range. One might speculate that the stone figures that do exhibit features in the same style as the ivory figures are contemporary with the ivory figures, providing a small wedge into the inscrutability of stone figure dating.

56Of those that do resemble the ivory carvings, in the comparison of the head in ivory and stone (Figs. 6a, 10a), we see an elongated, prognathic, diagonal face with a prominent nose with enlarged nostrils, and large lips somewhat in the shape of two discs covering most of the area of the lower face. The eyes are also oversized, and framed by a raised line indicating the lid and the lower edge. The nasal bridge is long and straight, and begins between the inner points of the eyes rather than at the forehead, consistent with West African physiognomy.

57Although there are many variations, there is one very prevalent characteristic of the shape of the ear in both coastal-style stone figures and the ivory figures. The ear is the most complicated form on the human body, and one of the most diverse, and therefore one of the most difficult forms to replicate in drawing or sculpture. Pre-modern African art is almost always schematic rather than naturalistic, so it is interesting to see how the Sierra Leone artists chose to portray it. Two of the most common among the Sapi sculptures are a kind of “C-shaped,” or “question mark,” or “comma” form (Figs. 6a, 10a, 10b), sometimes a circle with an angle indenting the front, resembling three-fourths of a pie, punctuated by a dot in the middle of the angle (Figs. 7e, 10c). I have counted at least fifty stone figures in this general style. Most of the ivory figures are similar.

58The beard, in both the ivory figures (Fig. 6e, 7e) and the stone figures (Fig. 10d), is often depicted as a thin line of dots extending from the chin to over the ear. This, of course, also is schematic, as no natural beard appears in such a form. So, it is a conscious artistic choice, and a rather idiosyncratic one, pertaining perhaps not to a single ­artist, but to a regional style.

59There is sometimes a very curious representation of what seem to be braids on the top of the head (Figs. 9c, 10e). The several thin braids emanate from the crown of the head and extend over the head. They end in a spherical shape, perhaps depicting braids to which a large bead is attached at the end. This seems so particular that it is likely to be a regional or local convention, although otherwise the styles of the three objects I have found are sufficiently different as to rule out a single artist or workshop.

60The prominent scapula on many coastal-style stone figures (Figs. 11a, 1b) is found on a few of the ivory carvings (Fig. 11c), in a square, blocked-out shape. A similar shape is found on nineteenth and twentieth century Baga figures further north on the coast of Guinea, which I have pointed out elsewhere in my study of Baga art, among several comparable features (Lamp 1983). Again, as this is a schematic form exaggerating the naturalistic, it is particular to this area.

62In both media, stone and ivory, one often finds a curious convention of rendering a seated figure with the lower legs bent from the knee out and behind, realistically possible only for a contortionist (Figs. 11e, 11f). I am not aware of this posture in nineteenth-twentieth century Sierra Leone art. Although it is sometimes difficult to tell, it seems that this convention applies only to female figures in both media. So, it is not arbitrary.

63The manner of depicting the feet is varied in the case of both stone and ivory figures carved fully in the round, but there is one style frequently used in which the feet are flat and splayed upon a base, in low relief, seemingly disconnected from the leg (Figs. 9d, 11d). Since many examples are not in this style, this may be a regional convention of a particular workshop or regional group of workshops. Or it may represent the late period in which ivory figures were carved for the Portuguese. This, again, is a convention followed in many Baga figures in the twentieth century.

64Some of the above comparisons are certainly tenuous, such as the shape of the feet or the position of the arms. I include them with the caveat, reluctant to discard them without further analysis, as comparisons simply to keep in mind. Other comparative forms are relatively rare and may be simply anomalies. But some stylistic conventions are quite particular, conventionalized, and unusual, certainly not random. Taken as a whole, I believe they are a mutual way of conceptualizing the human form, and show a close connection between some stone figures and the ivory figures carved for the Portuguese.

66Where they, in fact, in these cases, of the same region, the same set of villages, the same clan, the same house and family, the same workshop, or even the same artists? In the cases detailed above, where the ivory figures and the stone figures bear nearly identical imagery, it seems reasonable to postulate that the artists could have been the same, or, at least, that they were traveling in the same circles, adherents to the same worldview and the same cultural conventions. Where the features are in an almost identical style, it seems likely that both the ivory carving and the stone carving come from the same hand, or, at least, from the same workshop or a regional set of workshops. Logically, it would have been the existing artists in the societies on the coast of Sierra Leone who would have been recruited to carve for the visiting Portuguese.

67By comparison, carvers in Sierra Leone in the twentieth century were in great demand by many people in their society – paramount chiefs, section chiefs, the heads of Pɔrɔ and Sande, the heads of medicine societies such as Yassi and Njayei, the heads of initiation societies, and men and women of social and economic distinction. The Mende carver Vandi Sona, and his son Ansumana, working in the mid-twentieth century, were a great example – they carved Sande helmet masks, figures for the Njayei medicine society, ivory snuff containers, combs, chiefs’ trumpets, and everything that patronage demanded (Fig. 12). They would also carve for Europeans (Phillips 1995: 149–150).

Conclusions

68The dating for the stone figures, especially for those in the inland area of the present-day Kissi, continues to be revised and enlarged. I have long argued for the beginning of the end of such stone carving sometime around the dating given in the early sources for some kind of major upheaval with the hegemony of the immigrant Mani over the indigenous Sapi in the mid-sixteenth century. This would correspond to what most scholars assume to be the period of the carving of the ivory saltcellars and trumpets made for the visiting Europeans exhibiting very similar stylistic aspects. Some evidence of European features suggest that these artists or continuing workshops were still carving stone in these styles for indigenous use, into the sixteenth century, when the carving of ivory saltcellars apparently ceased and they probably were no longer imported by the Portuguese, despite some arguments to the contrary (Mark 2007: 205). These correspond in style and content to the coastal stone figures.

69There is certainly disjunction beginning in the mid-sixteenth century, with regime change throughout the region and concomitant changes in artistic style, artistic representation, and the institutions that sponsored art through the very well documented early-seventeenth. There are also, clearly, some continuities.

70Stone work continues to be excavated informally by local people in Sierra Leone today. If the ivory saltcellars and trumpets were, in fact, carved in Sierra Leone, could excavation possibly unearth the evidence of this activity and even material remains? Artists’ workshops generally leave artists’ middens, with discarded artworks in breakage, changes in plans, disgruntled clients, and other interventions. The early Portuguese sources tell of the burials of kings with their artistic treasures. I have not given many firm answers here, but have attempted to raise questions about social disjunction and the continuity of style, and what the characteristics of materials can tell us.

71Interpreting the gestures, posture, dress, and attitudes inherent in ancient figures of any kind is always complicated when we do not have a clear picture of the society and the culture of the time, with written documents or illustrations from the time, or archaeological evidence. And it is even more difficult when we do not know for certain the relevant span of time, and we are not sure of the identity of the makers. We know that there has been considerable mobility of West African peoples in this region in the past millennium, and before, because of the modern polyglot, diverse religious, political, and kinship systems, as well as the influx of Europeans, Near Easterners, and Africans from other regions, with admixture, and the introduction of new religions, complicating notions of ethnicity. But we do have some historical and linguistic evidence on the evolution of peoples and societies in this region, running continuously for almost 600 years to the present, enough to suggest some durable strains of language and culture, and some precedence. There are early European accounts of indigenous ritual, material culture, nomenclature, and practice that resemble very closely those of contemporary peoples throughout this region in minute detail (Lamp 2016; Hair 1967). Comparing the ancient attributes seen in sculpture with the contemporary practices of living people is always risky. But it can be productive to judiciously examine those attributes that still seem to persist in the cultures of the descendants.

72Excellence in carving does not happen overnight – it is always the result of many years of training and experience. It is really inconceivable that the artists who were called upon to carve in ivory for the Portuguese would not have been already highly trained, experienced, competent artists among their own people, carving for indigenous patronage. They would have been carving spoons, trumpets, bowls, snuff containers, staffs, ritual masks, wood figures, and stone figures for their own kings, chiefs, and other people of means. They would carve whatever was asked of them, in any form desired by the patron. The carvers of ivory saltcellars, spoons and forks, dagger handles, and hunters’ trumpets for the Portuguese would certainly already have been the accomplished and certified artists of their own communities on the coast of Sierra Leone.