Object Details
- Label Text
- Although often identified with the Asante, the most numerous and best known of the Akan peoples, weights for measuring gold dust were made and used throughout Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. For more than five centuries, from about 1400 to 1900, Akan smiths cast weights of immense diversity. Their small size made them portable and easy to trade. Each weight was cast individually in the lost-wax method. What resulted was a unique piece, but one that had to be a specific weight to function. The shape or figure of a weight did not correspond to a set unit of measure: a porcupine in one set could equal an antelope in another, or a geometric form in a third. For important transactions, gold dust was placed on one side of a small, handheld balance scale, a weight on the other. Each party to the dealing verified the amount of gold dust using his or her own weights.
- Visually, weights fall into two distinct categories: geometric and figurative. Stylistically they are divided into early (c. 1400-1700) and late (c. 1700-1900) periods. This object is an early-period geometric weight. The bent arm cross or swastika on this weight is a traditional design that is usually described as a stylization of the crossed crocodile motif. The crossed crocodiles have one belly but when eating they fight. The meaning conveyed is 1) there is unity in diversity, and 2) it is a mockery of greediness--since in the end, it all goes to the same place, the stomach.
- Description
- Cast copper alloy geometric weight in the form of a hexagon with a raised swastika and two bars on top.
- Provenance
- Benjamin Weiss, New York, -- to 1982
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Akan artist
- Date
- 15th-early 18th century
- Credit Line
- Gift of Benjamin Weiss
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 1.6 x 2.2 x 2.2 cm (5/8 x 7/8 x 7/8 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
