Agu-'nsi figure, Witch in a Bottle, and Rowan Loops
Agu-’nsi
Figure used for divination, Nigeria
PRM 1916.45.115 Case C. 31.A
This carved wooden quadruped figure is attributed to the Etche or Igbo (also Ibo) peoples of the Rivers State of the Niger Delta region in southern Nigeria and is described in museum records as having been used for divination practices. Divination is a practice to seek knowledge of the future or something unknown through a set of ritual behaviours, often facilitated by a specialist and involving sets of objects with specific meanings.
With its minimal snout on a rounded face and ears, gazing forward with its head and outstretched tail, this figure has been described as a dog but it may be another animal. Looking closely at the legs of the figure reveals that the lower half was constructed separately from the main body and attached by nails hammered up through the soles of its feet. The eyes have been created with insertions made of glass and the surface of the figure has been coated in a thick black substance that may have been applied during divination rituals.
This figure was collected by Percy Amaury Talbot, a British colonial district officer who was in southern Nigeria between 1902 and 1931. Interested in anthropology, Talbot wrote about the cultures he encountered there. Talbot donated a large collection of items from south Nigeria to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1916 and this figure was recorded in the accession book, along with a set of three other wooden figures said to have been used by a medicine man for oracular purposes.
This object featured in the video artwork 'Presence and Absence' by Marina Abramović.
It is one of seven objects you can read about that was part of the exhibition trail on the ground floor of the museum.
Silvered glass bottle
said to contain a witch
Sussex, England
PRM 1926.6.1 Case C. 31.A
This bottle was collected in 1915 in Hove, Sussex, by the folklorist and archaeologist Margaret Murray, who researched and wrote about European witchcraft. The tale accompanying this artefact is unusual compared to that attributed to other known European ‘witch bottles’ which are usually associated with protection against evil and counteracting bewitchment. This silvery, hourglass-shaped vessel is said to have been obtained from an ‘old lady’ who remarked that opening it would release a witch and unleash ‘a peck o’ trouble’. Whether this story is true or not, narratives of this sort supported popular ideas in the early twentieth century in which witchcraft was viewed as troublesome.
This object featured in the video artwork 'Presence and Absence' by Marina Abramović.
It is one of seven objects you can read about that was part of the exhibition trail on the ground floor of the museum.
Rowan tree crosses and loops
Used as protection against witchcraft, England
PRM 1893.14.3–.4; 1893.18.1–.3
Case C. 31.A
These small, delicate objects are crafted from twisted loops and folded strands of wood from the rowan tree. Used as protection charms and hung on doors and above fireplaces in homes across the British Isles, they guarded thresholds to deflect bad luck and prevent malevolent forces from entering. Rowan crosses are sometimes tied with red thread and can also include the red berries from the rowan tree. In English folklore, it is thought that the rowan tree’s protective powers are linked to the presence of a small pentagram at the base of the berries they produce. Five-pointed stars are associated with protection from malignant witchcraft, as is the colour red.
The association of rowan trees with protection, was widespread across Europe from the cultural histories of the Celtic peoples to accounts of divination in Norse cultures in Scandinavia.
Rowan crosses are sometimes known as ‘Bride’s Crosses’ and were also said to have been tied to animals and carried in pockets as amulets as well. In 1597, King James VI of Scotland condemned their use in his compendium on witchcraft, the Daemonologie, which was republished in England in 1603. These examples were acquired by the Pitt Rivers Museum towards the end of the nineteenth century. There is still an active trade in rowan crosses, with modern examples being made and used today.
This object featured in the video artwork 'Presence and Absence' by Marina Abramović.
It is one of seven objects you can read about that was part of the exhibition trail on the ground floor of the museum.
