The Object Show: Discoveries in Bowdoin Collections
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Syrian Saracen Armor: Shield with Bosses, seventeenth century steel with inlaid silver Gift of the Misses Harriet Sarah and Mary Sophia Walker 1894.84.2 This densely ornamented shield interweaves elements of language and weaponry, communication and conflict. The calligraphy around its rim invokes Allah (“God”), addressed as kafani (“is sufficient to me”); other portions are highly […]
Western Mexican Two Fighting Shaman, 100 BCE–100 burnished terracotta with applied slip, added ear ornaments (lost) Museum Purchase, Florence C. Quinby Fund, in memory of Henry Cole Quinby, Honorary Degree, 1916 1969.83 Originally, this hollow, hand-molded, and pit-fired ceramic object held food, perhaps chicha (corn beer), and was placed within a shaft grave that contained […]
Micronesian (Republic of Kiribati) Shark Tooth Sword, 19th century shark teeth, wood, coconut fiber, leaf, and human hair 14.2013 Micronesian people have inhabited the Gilbert Islands, a chain of sixteen atolls in the Pacific Ocean, for more than two thousand years. The Gilbertese traditionally made a variety of weapons for use in tribal warfare and violent […]
