What is this? Some strange torture device? A really edgy necklace? Sometimes objects do not tell their story outright (at least not to those, who do not already have specialised knowledge). When I was combing through our database, looking for an interesting subject for today’s […]
All posts filed under: Africa
Cheeky monkey: Coconut figure from Namibia
The curious little coconut monkey figure is a part of collection that Mogens Stryhn just handed over to Moesgaard Museum a few weeks ago. As such, it has entered the museum database as EA 909-127. The entire collection consists of 269 artefacts that Stryhn has […]
Woven fabric: Does this REALLY qualify as an ethnographic artefact?
A woven fabric. It could be purchased in IKEA for pocket change. But it was not. It is an ethnographic artefact collected in Egypt in 2002, more specifically in Luxor in Upper Egypt. The question is; does it qualify as a museum artefact? Often, ethnographic […]
Faith on the roads: Religious stickers from Gabon
Driving on a motorbike in an African city is scary. During my own fieldwork in Uganda, I never felt threatened by people, rarely by animals (there was that one rat that bit my toe through a mosquito net), but almost always by the traffic. In […]
A Brass Box, or How I Lost Faith in Humanity
Let’s play a guessing game. What purpose do you think this artefact has? Is it an antique business card holder for the stylish gentleman (or -woman) of business? Is it a snuff container that fits perfectly into a jacket pocket? Has is, perhaps, contained bobby […]
Magic and Medicine: On the benefits of fungi, blood, and iron paste
Did you know that the famous 5.300-year-old ‘iceman’ Ötzi found in the Italian Alps in the 1990s carried around a fungus that worked as an antibiotic? And that it would have helped him alleviate the symptoms of the parasites scientists have found in his colon? […]
Capturing the Moment: The journey to the end of the world…
A very blue sky. Children having fun in sand dunes. Target practicing. Passing time. The photo was taken by a Danish explorer in the Kalahari Desert in the southern parts of Africa in 1947. Even now, the Kalahari Desert is in many ways on the […]
The importance of representation: Ghanaian doll
When I was a girl, I wasn’t much into dolls. I was the kind of kid who fell asleep with my box of books next to me in my bed (along with about a 75 stuffed animals). When I, at the age of two, had […]
Rock churches and colourful angels: Ethiopian icon
Did you know that Christianity flourished in Ethiopia many hundreds of years before it reached Scandinavia? Christianity became the state religion in Ethiopia in 330 AD, five hundred years before the first missionaries reached Denmark in the Viking Age. We, here in Northern Europe, pride […]
Why Moesgaard Museum is my Tardis (one for the Doctor Who nerds)
Do any of you watch Doctor Who? The brilliant British TV series about an alien called a Time Lord, who travels in time and space in his time machine (shaped like a blue Police Box), usually accompanied by a human sidekick or two. It is […]
The summer MUST HAVE: Homemade sunglasses
Am I the only one, who finds it infuriating when the covers of fashion magazines tell me about the items I simply MUST HAVE this summer/winter/fall/festival/Christmas/Easter/graduation/garden party…? ’10 Things Every Woman Must Own’. ‘Rachel Zoe’s Top 10 Fall Must-Haves’. ‘15 Must-Have Items for a Classic […]
The Malagasy raffia cloth – A convergence of three historical trajectories
Guest blogger Anders Norge Lauridsen takes an unassuming raffia cloth from Madagascar as his point of departure, and tells a tale that spans 1600 years and half the globe. Join us as he shows us how objects can hold This elegant raffia cloth from Madagascar […]
