An overmodelled skull is a skull covered with various materials to reconstruct the appearance of a human head. This technique of art and religion is described in many countries throughout the ages.
Origins
A custom that has existed since the
Neolithic era
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
, it is widespread in
Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...
and the
Near East. It originated as a cult of ancestors and consists of covering the dry skull with a plastic material, such as earth, clay, ash, plaster or lime. Skulls can be embellished with pigments, jewellery etc. Sometimes, skulls of animals are also over-modelled.
[Anthony JP Meyer, ''Oceanic Art'', Könemann, 1995, p.382]
Gallery
File:Crâne surmodelé du Vanuatu.jpg, Overmodelled skull from Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
.
File:Basel Museum der Kulturen Crâne surmodelé Vanuatu 25102013 2.jpg, Overmodelled skull, Vanuatu.
File:Exposition "Cheveux chéris" (musée du quai Branly, Paris) (8168058284).jpg, Skull in the musée du quai Branly.
File:Marratampirivit overmodelled skull-ETHOC 010205-IMG 2277-black.jpg, Skull of the musée d'ethnographie de Genève
The ' ("Geneva Ethnography Museum") is one of the most important ethnographic museums in Switzerland.
History
The MEG, or Geneva Museum of Ethnography, was founded on 25 September 1901, on the initiative of Professor Eugène Pittard (1867-1962), ...
, 19th.
File:Crâne néolithique surmodelé (musée archéologique, Amman, Jordanie) (39030812611).jpg, Overmodelled skull in Amman, neolithic era.
References
Articles annexes
*
Skull
The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, t ...
*
Papua New Guinean art
Papua New Guinean art has a long rich diverse tradition. In particular, it is world-famous for carved wooden sculpture: masks, canoes and story-boards. Papua New Guinea also has a wide variety of clay, stone, bone, animal and natural die art. Many ...
*
Plastered human skulls
Plastered human skulls are human skulls covered in layers of plaster, typically found in the ancient Levant, most notably around the modern Palestinian city of Jericho, between 8,000 and 6,000 BC (approximately 9000 years ago), in the Pre-Pott ...
Bibliography
* Alain Nicolas, ''Art papou'', Nouvelles Éditions Scala, Paris, 2000 & ''L'art papou : Austronésiens et Papous de Nouvelle-Guinée'' (catalogue d'exposition, Musée de
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...
, 2000.
* Maxime Rovere, Magali Melandri, ''Rouge kwoma : peintures mythiques de
Nouvelle-Guinée : exposition, Paris, Musée du quai Branly, 14 octobre 2008-4 janvier 2009'', Réunion des musées nationaux :
Musée du quai Branly, Paris, 2009, .
*
* Anthony JP Meyer, ''Oceanic Art'', Könemann, 1995.
* Arthur C. Aufderheide, ''Overmodeled Skulls'', Heide Press, 2009
Papua New Guinean culture
Art by country
Indigenous art
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