In August 2011, my brother and his wife saw a listing for an estate sale in the nearby town of Yorkville, Illinois that caught their attention. They arrived at the sale bright and early on a Saturday morning. As they were looking through the bric-a-brac, my brother spotted a jewelry box with a sign attached saying any item in the box could be purchased for $10. It was there amid the relatively worthless costume jewelry that my brother spotted something very unusual. Tied together with a piece of rotting leather were three curious items made of bone. Intricately carved and clearly very old, he knew he had stumbled on some special items. He just didn't realize at the time how very special they would prove to be.
Please read below for the rest of the story ... so far.
He took the pieces home and tried in vain to research what the objects were and where they may have come from. For three years they sat on his desk, sparking his imagination. Finally, in the summer of 2014, an opportunity to find out what these things might be presented itself. The Antiques Roadshow was coming to Chicago. My brother packed the items into a little sack and headed into the city.
He was immediately sent to the tribal arts and primitives table. The first appraiser took one look at them and called in another set of eyes. Before long, there was a buzzing gaggle of excited appraisers gathered around them. Finally, the big gun was called over to take a look—John Buxton, one of the most highly respected experts in the country.
After nearly two hours of examination, he finally sat down with my brother and his wife and told them that even though they couldn't identify exactly what these objects were, they were most certainly a very exciting and rare find. Photos had been sent to a colleague of Mr. Buxton's in London, Anthony Slayter-Ralph, who requested that they convince my brother to send the artifacts to him for further research. He agreed to do so.
In London the carvings were examined for a year by a host of researchers. Slater-Ralph finally sent them back to my brother in August 2015 with the news that they had stumped every scholar who examined them. Although they couldn't conclusively say without question, the consensus was they almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. Determining their age, however, created even more controversy. While Anthony Slayter-Ralph thought they were likely from the 15th or 16th century, other colleagues thought them to be much older, possibly as early as the 13th century.
Christianity in sub-Saharan Ethiopia has an extraordinarily rich and unique history. In the 4th century, the ruler of the Aksumite Empire, Ezana, embraced Christianity to further strengthen his burgeoning kingdom's relationship with the Roman Empire. Positioned along the bustling trade route through the Red Sea, Ezana's empire prospered as a stop for ships traveling between India and the Roman Empire. The Aksumite Empire's influence finally waned when Persia conquered South Arabia, shifting the old trade routes away from Ethiopia.
Little is known about this less prosperous time under what became the Zagwe dynasty, as very little remains to tell the tale. It wouldn't be until 1270 when Yekunno Amlak's army overthrew the Zagwe dynasty and began a new period of prosperity in the land. Several scholars who have looked at my brother's artifacts concluded that they were made during this time.
Yekunno Amlak's overthrow of the reigning Zagwe dynasty in 1270 marks the beginning of the Early Solomonic period (1270–1530). Amlak based his claim to legitimacy on an alleged lineage with the ancient rulers of Aksum originating with King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. This period was one of dramatic social and cultural change and development. Extensive international trade returned to Ethiopia since Europeans were seeking alternatives to trading along Islamic-controlled routes. This resurgence lasted until the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Evoking the legend of King Solomon, rulers of this period established royal churches lavishly decorated with wall paintings, gold ornamentation, and precious fabrics. These included the famous rock-hewn churches of Tegre and Lasta. Through affiliations with monastic leaders, these secular rulers used artistic patronage, including the recruitment of European artisans, to establish their authority and enhance their prestige. This interface with Europe exposed Ethiopian artists to new mediums, technologies, and aesthetic sensibilities. These influences are reflected in wall paintings through a shift from rigid frontality and the widespread use of geometric patterning to a three-quarter pose, a greater fluidity of line, and the use of modeling to describe three-dimensional volumetric figures. [Emphasis added] This new style contained elements of both Byzantine and Italian prototypes.
The sentence I highlighted fits with the objects and their "rigid frontality and the widespread use of geometric patterning." This has convinced some experts who researched them that they likely were made during the Early Solomonic period. However, take a very close look at this next image.
Here we have the figure of a holy man. On his right arm sits a bird, perhaps the dove of peace, while what appears to be a Bible dangles from his robe. On his left shoulder there is a building, maybe a church, radiating light. And most interesting of all is what appears to be a rosary clutched in his other hand. That one detail is what has the other camp convinced that this was carved much later as the rosary didn't make its debut until the 16th century under Pope Pius V. If this is a depiction of a rosary, it would rule out the theory that they are Early Solomonic items.
And so the mystery remains. My brother recently took the pieces to the Field Museum in Chicago when the museum offered to let the public bring items in for identification by their experts. These folks were just as uncertain of their origin as everyone else. However, one scholar at the museum has put my brother in touch with the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he thinks there is a good likelihood they will be able to definitively tell my brother what he has.
Or maybe, just maybe, one of you reading this post will know the answer.
