"The story of the Asante Ewer demonstrates the many lives that one object can have. Its extraordinary journey from England to West Africa and back highlights the extent of Africa's global pre-modern connections and the changing significance of such objects as they travel across continents."
"Dating to between 1340 and 1405, the Asante Ewer is considered one of the finest examples of medieval English bronze casting. It is also one of only three known medieval European ewers to have made their way to Ghana."
"The display also places the ewer within the wider networks that linked West Africa with North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and, indirectly, Europe from around AD 800 onward. Later, from the late fifteenth century, Atlantic maritime routes enabled more direct trade between Europe and West Africa."
The British Museum exhibition showcases the Asante Ewer, a medieval English bronze jug dating to 1340-1405, one of only three known medieval European ewers in Ghana. The object exemplifies how a single artifact can transform across centuries and cultures, beginning as a luxury English vessel, becoming sacred in the Asante kingdom's royal palace, and finally being taken during the 1896 Anglo-Asante War. The exhibition contextualizes the ewer within extensive trade networks connecting West Africa with North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Europe from AD 800 onward. Maritime routes from the fifteenth century enabled direct European-West African trade, facilitating the movement of copper westward and gold and ivory eastward. A photograph from 1884 documents the ewer's presence in the Asantehene's palace courtyard, indicating its significance as a shrine object.
#medieval-artifacts #cultural-exchange #colonial-history #african-european-trade-networks #museum-exhibition
Read at Medievalists.net
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