Early ceramics from Calabar, Nigeria: towards a history of nsibidi.

Recent excavations in the region of Calabar, Nigeria, have brought to light an important corpus of archaeological ceramics, including vessels, headrests, and anthropomorphic objects. Interpretation of these ceramics bears upon our understanding of the graphic system known as nsibidi (or nsibiri), a central and defining characteristic of Cross River visual culture still employed by men and women throughout the region today. Considered one of the indigenous African scripts, nsibidi records, transmits, and conceals various kinds of information using a wide, fluid vocabulary of geometric and naturalistic signs placed on objects including calabashes, brassware, textiles (FIGS. 1-2), masquerade paraphernalia (FIG. 3), and wood sculpture, and on surfaces including the ground, the walls of buildings, and even human skin. Yet little is known of the history of nsibidi prior to the early twentieth century, when it caught the attention of colonial officials. (1)

[FIGURES 1-3 OMITTED]

The Calabar ceramics, incorporating such a great variety of discrete motifs--including arcs, arrows, chevrons, concentric circles, crosses, lozenges, spirals, and stars--evidence an iconography readily comparable to nsibidi. Moreover, the decoration found on the anthropomorphic figurines suggests that ancient people may have embellished their own bodies in a manner similar to the use of modern nsibidi and other motifs as body decoration. Hence, a close study of the archaeological ceramics, which span the period from the fifth to the fifteenth century CE, provides some historical depth to this important visual tradition and allows for a deeper understanding of art history in the Cross River region. (2) Reviewing the varied historical contexts of nsibidi while keeping in mind its inherently "multimedia" quality allows us to begin consideration of its relationship to archaeological ceramics and their likely place within a culture (or cultures) similarly permeated with meaningful signs inscribed on any number of different materials.

NSIBIDI IN THE CROSS RIVER REGION

As a form of communication, nsibidi has been a focus of inquiry for observers and students of Cross River cultures from the early colonial period (major contributions include Mansfeld 1908, Macgregor 1909, Dayrell 1910, 1911, P.A. Talbot 1912:448-461, Jeffreys 1964, Thompson 1974:173-241, 1978, 1983, Amaeshi 1977, Kalu 1980, Kubik 1986, Campbell 1988, Battestini 1991, Roschenthaler 1993, Battestini 2002, Carlson 2003). Nsibidi is generally thought to have originated among the Ejagham peoples of the northern Cross River region, in large part because colonial investigators found the greatest number and variety of signs among them. Over time, nsibidi spread throughout the basin, enriched in the process through trade and other forms of cultural exchange with any number of groups and their art, such as the Igbo graphic design called uli (Kalu 1980:84). Writing in the colonial period, the British district officer P.A. Talbot noted,

   For a long time messages have been sent in Nsibidi script, cut or
   painted on split palm stems.... [It is] a kind of primitive secret
   writing ... chiefly carried out by means of poker-work on
   calabashes, canoes ... stools, etc., but occasionally by [marking on
   the body and face]...." (P.A. Talbot 1912:308, 1969:932).

His contemporary, the missionary J.K. Macgregor, went even further to state, "The use of nsibidi is that of ordinary writing. I have in my possession a copy of the record of a court case from a town of [Enyong] taken down in it, and every detail ... is most graphically described" (Macgregor 1909:212). More recently, historian Basil Amaeshi described nsibidi as "a widely-used vehicle of communication, for record keeping, and warning against immediate danger" (Amaeshi 1977:5), while historian Ogbu Kalu, in his critical review of the literature on nsibidi, described its functions more broadly to include "identity label, public notice, private warning, declaration of taboos [and] amorous messages, reckoning of goods and money, and method of keeping of records and decorations" (Kalu 1980:83).

Today, nsibidi knowledge, or "literacy," varies according to such factors as age, gender, locality, and membership--and level of initiation--in an association that uses it (Carlson 2003). Nsibidi is a fluid system containing hundreds of signs. Some are pictographic (manilla, leopard, mirror), while others are abstract (arc, cross, grid, circle, spiral). It has both public and private components. Some signs are established within popular usage and are widely understood. For example, an arc generally indicates a person. By combining arcs, different sorts of personal relationships and activities may be described. Hence, the sign of two intertwined arcs signifies conjunction, love, or marriage (FIG. 1). Knowledge of other signs may be restricted to members of certain groups. For example, members of the pan-regional Leopard Society (known variously as Mgbe among the Qua, Ngbe among the Efut, and Ekpe among the Efik--the "Egbo" of older sources) are proscribed from discussing with outsiders the full meanings of particular nsibidi signs. A former Qua paramount ruler at Calabar once told the art historian Robert Farris Thompson, "One kind of traditional writing all know and use, the other is secret--both are nsibidi" (Thompson 1978:30). Considered broadly in the context of such pan-regional groups as the Leopard Society, nsibidi could also transcend potentially divisive ethnic and linguistic boundaries (see Battestini 2002:69). Indeed, historian O.E. Uya maintained twenty years ago that the "unifying influence [of nsibidi] within the Cross River region is no longer debatable" (Uya 1987:42).

However, nsibidi should not be likened to the contents of a printed book passed from hand to hand, but viewed as a pool of symbols having different meanings and different contexts of use in time and space. This paradoxical nature has fueled scholarly disagreements as to whether particular signs should be classified as "true" or "genuine" nsibidi, or "pseudo-nsibidi" (Campbell 1983:40, 45) or, more condescendingly, "mere decorative art" (Kalu 1980:84). However, not only does such hierarchical labeling not account for variablility in the use of signs over time, it creates the false impression that designs not recognized as nsibidi must be insignificant. It may help to consider this pan-ethnic symbolic system in broader terms, as core symbols constituting what archaeologist Roderick McIntosh in his efforts to understand the complexity of cultural symbols in the Inland Niger Delta region of Mali has described as a "Symbolic Reservoir":

   ... a vast, deep-time, curated supply of symbols or ideologies
   available as social codes. There are no objective, rigidly-fixed
   meanings transmitted from the past. Meaning attached to specific
   elements of the Reservoir often work at the level of social
   "givens"; meanings can be quite different for different sub-groups
   and certainly can change over time.... We should consider the
   Symbolic Reservoir to be a fluid pool maintained through time
   despite the appearance or borrowing of new elements, the waxing and
   waning of others, or the disappearance of yet others (McIntosh
   1992:148-9).

Thus, various members of Cross River societies contributed to its development over a long period of time and in varied contexts of use, whether more local--or more regional--in outlook. The archaeological ceramics from the Calabar area suggest this symbolic reservoir is centuries old. Their decoration certainly appears to be a precursor of modern nsibidi. However, due to the age of the archaeological material and the current state of research on it, many questions remain concerning their meanings and who made them, some of which are addressed below. In any case, the ceramics offer valuable insight into histories not otherwise recorded. They provide an opportunity to compare significant visual correspondences between this early material and more recent, historically documented uses and meanings of nsibidi--as well as similar motifs not necessarily called such--in other domains.

In Calabar today, nsibidi is generally associated with the men's Leopard Societies. Prior to colonialism, such groups wielded great legislative, judicial, and executive power, primarily on the local level, but for the Efik, who controlled access to overseas trade, their influence was felt throughout the Cross River region. The power of the Leopard Societies was maintained in part through the secrecy surrounding the meanings of nsibidi, which members learned more deeply as they advanced in rank within the society.

Among the more prominent examples of nsibidi used by Leopard Society initiates in the public sphere is the cloth known as ukara, which in one format is worn as a wrapper on formal occasions (FIG. 2). (3) Larger versions may be hung within the society's meeting house to demarcate sacred from common space; they also serve as backdrops to formal occasions, such as the installation of a new paramount ruler in Calabar (Cole and Aniakor 1984:59). The composition of ukara is often based on a grid, with each section containing a design in white set against a deep indigo field. Some of the symbols are purely abstract and refer to Leopard Society ideology. For example, small repeating triangles refer to the leopard's claws and therefore signify the group's power, while concentric rectangles may refer to the society meeting house (ibid., p. 61). Other designs naturalistically represent objects also seen in other contexts (for instance, double-gongs and feathers are common attributes of leadership, and manillas--valid as currency well into the colonial period--remain symbolic of Leopard Society wealth and status). Over the grid are superimposed larger-scale images of Leopard Society masquerades and powerful creatures associated with the group, such as the leopard, their namesake who rules the forest, and crocodile, who rules the water. Arcs, arrows, circles, and crosses, often in combination, are frequently encountered on ukara. They are also major components of the decoration of the archaeological ceramics from Calabar.

Like nsibidi, ukara is a prime example of the intercultural aspect of Cross River arts. Designed on imported cotton fabric by southeastern Igbo men in the area of Abiriba and Arochukwu (using nsibidi motifs and names provided by specific patrons), the cloths are then sent north to Nkalagu where they are stitched and dyed with indigo using a stitch-resist technique associated with the Jukun in the Benue River region north of the Cross River (ibid., 59-61; Kecskesi 1987:2.17). Ukara, a readily identifiable symbol of Leopard Society membership, has certainly played a significant role in circulating nsibidi iconography throughout the Cross River region.

In preparation for important occasions, Leopard Society members also paint their bodies with nsibidi. As the missionary William Ward noted in 1913, "When a person has just been received into membership he parades the streets, exhibiting on his ... body the mystic signs of [the Leopard Society] chalked thereon in several colors" (Ward 1913:38). Members decorate their bodies with nsibidi for other transitional events, such as the initiations and funerals of fellow members (FIG. 4) and, in Calabar, the installation of new paramount rulers, who are generally chosen from the ranks of Leopard Society members. (4)

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

Painted nsibidi patterns decorated Leopard Society meeting houses, and such decoration made them unmistakable in the community. According to the colonial-era researcher John Parkinson, "no village in [Calabar] country exists where the [Leopard Society] house does not occupy the most prominent position and form the most conspicuous object" (Parkinson 1907:262; see also Mansfeld 1908:146-149, P.A. Talbot 1912:248, 257).

Nsibidi was also displayed in the homes of Leopard Society members. Thomas Hutchinson, the British Consul for the Bight of Biafra in the mid-nineteenth century, gave a vivid description of wall decoration he observed at the residence of the Efik trader Antika Cobham who, because of his occupation, would have been a Leopard Society member. By remarking, "A sketch of one of the trading gentleman's houses will suffice for the whole," Hutchinson made it clear that this example was not at all unique:

   The walls all round the court are adorned with a variety of
   extravagant designs of apocryphal animals; impossible crocodiles,
   possessing a flexibility in their outlines as is never seen in the
   living specimens; leopards with six feet; birds with horns from
   their tails. Diamond, and crescent, and cruciform shapes of
   vari-colored hues abound wherever there is a spot to paint them on
   ... (Hutchinson 1970:124-5).

His remark that diamond, crescent, and cruciform shapes "abound" could equally describe the decoration of the Calabar archaeological ceramics.

While the Leopard Society has been the most prominent men's institution associated with nsibidi since the early twentieth century, it is not the only one. According to Talbot:

   In the Ekoi folklore there is occasionally a mention of the Nsibidi
   (or Nchibbidi) Society, which was apparently in existence long
   before even the Ekkpe Club. Only chiefs might belong to it, and its
   seven Images [masquerades] acted as the executioners of those
   sentenced to death. It is possible that the Nsibidi writing ... was
   developed among its members as a method of communication or, perhaps
   with greater likelihood, its use was kept up by them long after it
   had been forgotten outside their circle (P.A. Talbot 1969:792).

Talbot believed the name was derived from the Ejagham word nchibbi, which he defined as '"to turn', and this has taken to itself the meaning of agility of mind, and therefore of cunning or double meaning" (P.A. Talbot 1912:305). (5) Ruel likewise mentioned an Nsibiri Society that was said to have predated the acquisition of the Leopard Society at the Banyang village of Nchang and noted that a prominent section of the modern Banyang Leopard Society is called Nsibiri Nkanda (Ruel 1969:202). Similarly, the Widekum of the upper Cross River region of Cameroon had a society called Nchibi, with a masquerade of the same name, whose costume c. 1925 featured a bold geometric design of two conjoined chevrons, a motif also found on the archaeological material (Migeod 1925:82; Nicklin and Salmons 1984:29).

Cognate groups are still active in the lower Cross River region, but there is little published information about them. A masquerade costume seen by the author in the Oron Museum in 2004, called Nnabo, had the following description on its label:

   Nnabo, otherwise known as Idem Nsibidi, is very prominent among
   the people of Ekoi [Ejagham], Quas, Efik of Cross River State and
   Idua in Oro [Oron] area of Akwa Ibom State. This masquerade is part
   of Ekpe which was used for the implementation of the decisions of
   the Ekpe cult members. (6)

Ekpo Eyo refers to Nnabo as "the executioners." (7) Art historian Onyile Onyile further explained that Nnabo masqueraders also served as bodyguards for the Efik Obong (paramount ruler), and, when necessary, were among the first to enter battle. (8) The costume itself bears skulls along with large-scale nsibidi signs (including arcs, circles, and crosses) boldly delineated with cowrie shells, another archaic currency form (FIG. 3). These nsibidi societies would have contributed to a diffusion of symbols throughout the Cross River region, only to be superseded by a newly prestigious Leopard Society at some point after the establishment of the transatlantic slave trade at Old Calabar--that is, after the Efiks of Old Calabar, having obtained the Leopard Society from their Qua (Ejagham) or Efut neighbors, elaborated it with the addition of costly grades and accoutrements made possible by their success in trading with Europeans (Ottenberg and Knudson 1985:43-4). (9) The secrecy now surrounding nsibidi at Calabar--at least as used by men's groups such as the Leopard Society--was likely exacerbated by missionary activity and colonial enterprise. Certainly after Old Calabar was named the seat of British colonial government in southern Nigeria in 1885, the town was no longer a place where Leopard Society members could publicly demonstrate the status they had previously enjoyed. Indeed, according to Ogbu Kalu, after the settlement of outsiders who threatened local power (such as the Church of Scotland Mission, established at Calabar in 1846), nsibidi "became a form of resistance," and was hidden to avoid official scrutiny (Kalu 1980:85).

Colonial-era sources, while enamored of the "mysterious" qualities of Leopard Society nsibidi used by men, also described the nsibidi arts of women. For example, Consul Hutchinson noted "hieroglyphs" that women carved onto calabashes (1970:160), many of which survive in museum collections today. A popular form of body painting with nsibidi was reserved for young women. According to Talbot:

   In the interior, children and young girls still have their bodies
   painted with designs made by black vegetable dyes.... [They] are
   also fond of ornamenting their faces, especially their foreheads,
   with designs in various colors. The absolute mastery of outline
   shown by these ... is far beyond the average expected from
   Europeans. The variety of such patterns is extraordinary. Several
   hundred sketches were made by my wife and her sister--indeed, the
   supply seemed inexhaustible. The outlines are often filled in with
   Nsibidi writing, and sometimes a girl's whole life-history is
   proclaimed in this manner. Such patterns are always traced by a
   female relative ... (P.A. Talbot 1912:320).

Macgregor (1909:210), furthermore, was told about a school where nsibidi knowledge was taught by a woman.

Art historian Amanda Carlson, having worked among the Bakor Ejagham in the northern Cross River area, explained that there, "Nsibiri literacy is negotiated along gender lines. And when women do have access to it, they use nsibiri differently than men" (Carlson 2003:xvi). The calabash designs now created by Bakor women, while not considered by them to be nsibiri, are nonetheless meaningful; they often reference relationships to loved ones (FIG. 5). One artist, Moku Mokpuk, was described to Carlson as "the writer of the designed calabash" (ibid., 215). Contemporary Bakor women's body art is also not considered to be nsibiri. According to Carlson, it "marks critical events that involve social transformations or elements of the unknown or even danger.... [In these women's calabash design and body decoration], there is no overt emphasis on secrecy or the mediation of power" that characterizes nsibidi usage among men's groups such as the Leopard Society (ibid., p. 216). This is a good example of the problematics of nomenclature when dealing with nsibidi usage in areas where comparable practices using similar symbols are employed. As quoted above, Talbot (and others after him) specifically described (and illustrated) such artistic production among Ejagham women using the term "nsibidi." The point here is that however they may be labeled, the designs are meaningful to those who create and view them.

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS

In 1977, Violetta Ekpo published the first of a series of articles detailing her excavation of a number of pit-caches containing ceramics and other artifacts during construction activities in the Qua areas of Calabar (FIGS. 6-7; Ekpo 1977). (10) The ceramic finds included anthropomorphic figurines and terracotta vessels displaying elaborate decoration including circles, spirals, arcs, interlaces, and lozenges, among others. She interpreted the sites as burials or storage places for ritual objects, noting certain correspondences--including decorative motifs--between the archaeological material and the modern cultures of the Qua and their northern relatives, the Ejagham. However, because no absolute dating was undertaken, Ekpo could only speculate on chronology based on visual evidence, including the presence or absence of European imports, such as gin bottles (Ekpo 1984:60; 1988:328). The ethnographer Keith Nicklin reported additional Calabar sites and likened ceramic fragments found at Mbakang in Cameroon to the material then turning up in Qua areas of Calabar (Nicklin 1980). This is especially significant because the Qua consider Mbakang to be their ancestral Ejagham homeland. Unfortunately, Mbakang has not been investigated further.

[FIGURES 6-7 OMITTED]

Ekpo Eyo's more extensive work has renewed attention to the archaeological history of Calabar, in the process establishing a much-needed chronological frame and expanding the range of sites known to contain similar ceramic assemblages to include areas outside Calabar municipality. Eyo's investigations also yielded some ceramic forms that were not previously known, such as the anthropomorphic works described below. Furthermore, staff members of the Old Residency Museum in Calabar, under the curatorship of Nath Mayo Adediran, have conducted important salvage operations when notified of sites imminently threatened by building activities, erosion, or looting, and study of this material will significantly further our understanding of Calabar's artistic heritage.

Eyo's finds illuminate an ancient culture rich with ceramics. In 1996, he investigated a site in Abasi Edem Street in Calabar, which contained more than a hundred terracottas of various forms arranged in three concentrations forming an arc. These ceramic finds included a male figurine (FIG. 8), a headrest, and dozens of vessels, including bowls and globular pots elaborately decorated with concentric circles, spirals, interlaces, arcs, and interlocking lozenges much like the pottery that was previously excavated by Violetta Ekpo. The decorated ceramics were often turned sideways or upside-down, which emphasized the designs. Eyo believes the site was the burial place of a man and has dated it to the eighth-tenth century by two radiocarbon samples. (11) Eyo excavated a site along Old Marian Road in Calabar in 1999, which also contained elaborately decorated ceramic objects (FIG. 9), many, as at Abasi Edem, placed sideways or inverted (Eyo 1999:12). Two radiocarbon samples collected from this site share dates in the sixth-eighth century. (12) In 1996, staff members of the Old Residency Museum, Calabar, received reports of an area several miles outside the city limits that had been extensively looted. Their investigations led to a site in a small valley near Obot Okoho village (in Calabar Local Government Area), where hundreds of fragments of decorated terracotta vessels, headrests, and anthropomorphic figurines were found seemingly grouped by type (Eyo 1999:11). The finds also included several quartz rubbers (pebbles with flat-polished surfaces), used to smooth pots before firing, a use still attested in the early twentieth century (P.A. Talbot 1969:933). This, the apparent grouping of similarly shaped objects, and the fact that raw clay was available locally, led Eyo to interpret the site as a pottery factory (Eyo 1999:11). Another important site, called Okang Mbang (c. eleventh-fourteenth century), was not far from Obot Okoho, on a hilltop that local residents told Eyo was once the home of a water spirit called Anwa Nsaharak (ibid.). Numerous terracotta objects of the same type found at Obot Okoho, as well as some water-worn quartz pebbles evidently left to honor the spirit, were recovered around the base of a large tree marking the site and throughout the eroded hillside below. These examples lack polished surfaces and so were not pottery production tools. Similar practices are documented in colonial-era sources (Parkinson 1907:266, D. Talbot 1968:13-14, P.A. Talbot 1969:780).

[FIGURES 8-9 OMITTED]

Many of the ceramics found at these four sites, including bowls, anthropomorphic vessels, and figurines, are decorated with combinations of carefully rendered geometric designs, including concentric circles, spirals, arcs, chevrons, lozenges, crosses, stars, grids, meandering lines, and interlaces. Such motifs are also prominent in modern nsibidi. While the overall designs often consist of variations of similar motifs, the makers of the ceramics displayed an obvious preference for creating unique works rather than multiple duplicates and maintained a fairly consistent style of impressed decoration, usually created through a combination of stippling, incision, combing, and rouletting techniques. Indeed, no two are decorated quite the same.

Numerous bowls were recovered with pedestal (or ring) bases, which vary in size from about 18cm (7") in diameter at the rim and 10cm (4") in height for the smaller examples, to larger ones approaching 30cm (12") across the rim and 15cm (6") in height. A profile view of several of the smaller, usually buff-colored bowls illustrates their variability (FIG. 10). The walls may be short and nearly vertical, flare outward from the base, or exhibit varying degrees of curvature or carination--features that should help in determining workshop styles or even specific hands. The bowls typically have a pierced lug just below the rim, which likely served as an anchor to attach a string loop from which the bowl could be hung for display or storage (P.A. Talbot 1912:pl. facing 114; Forde 1964:pl. VIb). While the interior of these small bowls is not decorated, the exterior of most examples--and some were left plain--displays a range of continuous impressed decoration including parallel grooves, multiple arcs, meanders, interlaces, hatching, rouletting, and stippling, usually in stock patterns that encircle the diameter of the bowl. In place of such repetitive designs, a few examples carry discrete motifs, such as interlaces, chevrons, arcs, lozenges, or concentric circles (FIG. 11).

[FIGURES 10-11 OMITTED]

The bases of these small bowls display a truly remarkable array of geometric designs that juxtapose parallel lines, arcs, and angles in a manner that can be dazzling to the eye. Carefully measured, symmetrical patterns predominate, with some asymmetrical examples standing in sharp contrast to them (FIGS. 12-13). While no two bases are embellished exactly the same, again speaking to the creative invention of their makers, similar "families" of patterns show up repeatedly, including concentric circles (FIGS. 14-15), spirals (FIG. 16), interlaces (FIG. 17), opposed or conjoined arcs and angles (FIGS. 18-19), as well as lozenges, crosses, and stars, among others (Slogar 2005). The images appear to overlap and intertwine in seemingly infinite combinations. Negative space and fill-patterns, most commonly tiny rows of stippled dots, add contrast and a sense of depth to the designs. Less common is a type of larger bowl, buff to red in color with a relatively small but pronounced pedestal base, steep walls, and a high shoulder leading to a sharply angled rim (FIG. 20). The decoration features large-scale motifs, including concentric circles, spirals, and interlocking lozenges, usually within four panels placed equidistantly around the body.

[FIGURES 12-20 OMITTED]

A number of anthropomorphized works from the Obot Okoho/Okang Mbang area feature discrete motifs evocative of body decoration (FIG. 21). All are based on similar bulbous vessel forms. Yet, while some have open rims and therefore may have served as containers, others are closed and feature heads. Thus, the latter works do not appear to have served as containers, at least in the literal sense of holding something physical such as a liquid (this is not to say that they could not have "contained" a spiritual essence). Unfortunately, many of these anthropomorphized works are broken at the top, making it difficult to determine whether they were originally finished with a rim or a head (FIGS. 22-25). In any case, the decoration of the open vessels is similar to that of the works with heads. The main designs generally occupy a panel on the body, demarcated by strong, often raised horizontal lines. This panel usually displays a combination of geometric designs, including circles, groups of lines, interlaces, meanders, arcs, chevrons, lozenges, and crosses. Some feature crescent motifs (FIG. 24) that resemble the iron hoe and needle currencies formerly used in southeastern Nigeria (Eyo 1979:51, 54; P.A. Talbot 1912:pl. facing 126). Interestingly, this practice is echoed in modern nsibidi by pervasive images of manillas (FIG. 2), a currency form that became defunct during the colonial period but whose image still speaks of wealth and power. The upper line of the panel may have larger, raised devices suggesting beads strung on a necklace. In some cases, angled lines flank the panel, which may represent a schematized version of the armsakimbo gesture of some figurines (FIG. 8).

[FIGURES 21-25 OMITTED]

A common decorative scheme found on intact pieces with heads is a series of high-relief, parallel vertical ridges--typically three--aligned on the abdomen. Below, a horizontal ridged or incised linear "base" spans the width of the panel, demarcating its lower edge. Along the right and left sides of the middle ridges often appear depictions of cowrie shells, individually or in small clusters, over a background comb-stippled in a herringbone pattern (FIG. 25). While there are no overtly anatomic indications of gender on such works, the coiffure and decoration may provide important clues.

Historical practices involving the use of ceramics as grave goods and shrine furnishings in the Cross River region are extensively noted in written sources. (13) During the colonial period, EA. Talbot revealed something of the ubiquity of pottery in such contexts when he observed that the memorial shrines lining a prominent road in the Ibibio area contained, in addition to their relics, "the usual pots" (Talbot 1923:323). Concerning more specifically the issue of nsibidi motifs on modern Cross River ceramics, there is little published information that addresses the matter explicitly. Colonial sources, while frequently laudatory in their comments on the region's ceramics, are generally too vague in their descriptions for one to discuss nsibidi in this medium. Among the most compelling examples is a statement of the Rev. Robert M'keown, in which he observes that Ibibio women "make earthenware adorned with ingenious devices" almost surely a reference to nsibidi (M'keown 1912:36). Perhaps the very ubiquity of pottery made it less interesting to colonial observers than other aspects of Cross River visual culture that were examined more extensively. However, we are lucky to have Keith Nicklin's description of a type of large Ibibio palm-wine pot (abang isong) used in communal feasts on occasions such as marriages and funerals. Writing in 1973, he observed that "many of [these] pots have mysterious signs which appear to represent the nsibidi or secret writing which is no longer understood in the area" (Nicklin 1973:185). Among his field sketches is of one of a pot decorated with prominent arrow motifs and opposed arcs flanking a vertical line--designs that are conventional to nsibidi. Nicklin noted that this particular example was dug from the earth, in an area that likely was an abandoned site for funerary shrines. (14)

(OLD) CALABAR

To better understand the significance of the Calabar archaeological ceramics, it is necessary to know something of the history of Calabar itself. The city overlooks the Calabar River near its junction with the Cross River, a major waterway that has long been an important conduit for cultural exchange in a tropical basin encompassing over 22,000 square miles (56,980 square km) of eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. Calabar is home to three major ethnic groups--the Efik, Qua, and Efut--who are in turn each closely related to other groups located throughout the basin, from the Ibibio and Oron in the south to the Ejagham in the north. (15) In this sense, Calabar may be viewed as a cultural microcosm of the entire Cross River region. While each of the three groups claims primacy in its arrival to the Calabar area, none claims to be autochthonous; they each have oral traditions detailing migrations to their present locations from elsewhere in the region (e.g. Latham 1973:5, 9-13; Onor 1994:80-81). However, precisely when the Calabar area was first inhabited is not known. Surviving written evidence indicates that various Efik groups occupying the lower Cross River coast developed regular commerce with European traders in the mid-seventeenth century, if not earlier (Ardener 1996; Latham 1973). Their settlements prospered, in time developing into regionally powerful city-states on profits gained primarily from the transatlantic slave trade (Latham 1973:9-13). Creek Town, Old Town, Henshaw Town, and Duke Town became most prominent among them. These Efik polities and their hinterlands were known collectively as Old Calabar until 1904 (when the name was shortened to "Calabar").

From the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, pottery was made in the Calabar area by Qua women at Ikot Ansa. However, the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970) effectively ended this production. According to Ekpo Eyo, this pottery is quite different from the archaeological material recovered in several sites in the city and surrounding areas. For example, Qua pottery from before the war characteristically had a glossy black finish, a feature not evident in the archaeological material. The Efik, for their part, have no history of ceramic production, but rather purchased what they needed from the Qua, other local groups, and Europeans. This is made clear by the Efik saying, "Ibotke abang esio inua" (literally, "You don't bring out the mouth of the pot"), meaning that Efiks do not have the skill to put the finishing touches on a pot. (16) The lack of historical information about Efut pottery suggests that they did not produce it themselves. Eyo attributes the general lack of pottery production among the Efik and Efut to their traditional occupations, which centered on the catching and processing of fish and shrimp--activities that required a more or less nomadic lifestyle not suitable to pottery production. (17) The agriculturalist heritage of the Qua people, on the other hand, allowed a more settled lifestyle that fostered the production of pottery. A comparable situation held on the opposite side of the Cross River from Calabar, where the coastal people of Oron imported pottery made by their agriculturist neighbors, the Nsit (Edunam 1984:78). Hence, as it now stands, the question of who made and used the early Calabar ceramics remains open. The works may even predate the arrival of the ancestors of the modern Efik, Qua, and Efut populations to the Calabar area.

In any case, the Calabar archaeological material presents an important opportunity to consider the possible ancient roots of the widely used communication system called nsibidi. The ancient ceramics therefore may also provide insight into the issue of gender and nsibidi usage, considering that the male burial at Abasi Edem contained many ceramics decorated with motifs now associated with nsibidi--all of which, presumably, were made by women, if the current model for ceramic production held in the distant past. Whether incised, pyro-engraved, sewn, dyed, drawn, or painted, nsibidi represents important bodies of knowledge that seem to transcend ethnic boundaries--an important consideration in a region that is extraordinarily diverse in languages and cultures, yet interconnected through trade facilitated by the Cross River and its tributaries. We should remember the words of archaeologist Scott MacEachern, who observed, "Archaeological traditions need not always be equated with ethnic groupings ... in some cases, artefact production simply operates at different scales than do ethnic groups" (MacEachern 1994:220). Indeed, the "symbolic reservoir" that now describes nsibidi and related designs is the product of no single group, but of many Cross River societies working over many years. Hence, the decoration of the early Calabar ceramics can be related to historical practices associated with nsibidi that remain current to this day--not only at Calabar, but throughout the wider Cross River region and across a variety of media not limited to ceramics. Considered alone, they are remarkable examples of the region's artistic and cultural heritage; considered in tandem with nsibidi, the ceramics reveal this heritage to be richer and significantly older than previously considered.

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Notes

These archaeological investigations were conducted jointly by the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Old Residency Museum, Calabar, and the University of Maryland, under the direction of Ekpo Eyo. The author participated in this project and conducted related dissertation research in the region on five occasions from 1996-2004. This research was supported by the University of Maryland Department of Art History and Archaeology, the Committee for Africa and the Americas, and the Graduate School; the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution; the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; the Cosmos Club Foundation; and the Pittsburgh Foundation. The author is grateful to the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments and especially the museums of Calabar, Lagos, and Oron--whose assistance made this project possible.

All photos by Christopher Slogar except where otherwise noted

(1) While the motifs including concentric circles, spirals, and lozenges found on the carved monoliths of the upper Cross River region have been cited as early examples of nsibidi, we must keep in mind that the stones themselves are not securely dated. Within a circle of stones at Emangabe, Ekpo Eyo obtained a sample of charcoal, which by means of radiocarbon testing yielded a date of 1750 +/- 50 BP, or C. 120-220 AD, but Eyo himself expressed serious reservations over this because it is only a single result and later noted that a radiocarbon date associated with carved stones at nearby Alok supported Philip Allison's sixteenth-century dating based on his study of local oral traditions (Eyo 1986, 1995).

(2) Cognizant of the inherent problematics of relating material from the distant past to the present, I am mindful of art historian Marla Berns, who rightly asserted, "the potential in such analogy depends on rigorous attention to the clustering of patterns and traits rather than on the exaggeration of random occurrences" (Berns 1989:35). Hence, my adoption of an ethnoarchaeological approach to my dissertation (Slogar 2005).

(3) Cole and Aniakor 1984:59-61; see also P.A. Talbot 1969:787 and Partridge 1905:184, "[A] kind of waist-cloth ... being about seven and a half feet long by about two feet wide; upon it is printed, blue on white, a chequer pattern alternating with one resembling birds' feathers."

(4) For images of Leopard Society initiates with painted nsibidi on their torsos see, among others, Akak 1982:294; Uyo 1983:55; Anonymous, n.d.:11; Visona et al. 2001:279.

(5) Mansfeld (n.d.) also noted that the Ejagham of Cameroon had a society called "Ndschebbe."

(6) Label text, Oron Museum (Oron, Nigeria), August 18, 2004. The Ibibio also had a version of this society that was distinct from the Leopard Society. According to one Ibibio scholar, "Similar to Ekpe was Nsibidi. Nsibidi and Ekpe had secret signs known only to members" (Uyo 1983:54).

(7) Ekpo Eyo, personal communication, August 18, 2004.

(8) Onyile, personal communication, January 22, 2006.

&& (9) This Efikized Leopard Society became the model institution in the Cross River region for men seeking to gain from the lucrative new overseas trade controlled by the Efik members of Old Calabar (Ottenberg and Knudson 1985). Perhaps the northern nsibidi societies, like the Efik's own Ndem water spirit cult, could not maintain their importance with the currents of history shifting from internal to external affairs. On the decline of the Ndem cult vis-a-vis Ekpe in Old Calabar, see Latham 1973:35.

(10) Ekpo was then curator of the Old Residency Museum, Calabar. See Ekpo 1977, 1978, 1984, 1988; Ekpo and Nicklin 1982.

(11) Teledyne 1-18, 732 (1220 +/- 80 BP); Teledyne 118, 731 (1090 +/- 80 BP). Courtesy of Ekpo Eyo; see also Eyo 2001:15.

(12) Beta 128892 (1400 +/- 90 BP); Beta 128891 (1380 +/- 90 BP). Courtesy of Ekpo Eyo.

(13) For example, Partridge 1905; P.A. Talbot 1912, 1969 contain numerous references to ceramics. For a survey of such historical accounts, see Slogar 2005.

(14) Keith Nicklin, field notes, November 23, 1971, courtesy of Jill Salmons. See also Nicklin 1973:187.

(15) The larger Cross River region is home to about sixty languages spoken among even more ethnic groups (Ntukidem 1990:5).

(16) Ekpo Eyo, personal communication, August 18, 2004.

(17) Ibid.

Christopher Slogar is an assistant professor of art history at California State University, Fullerton. [e-mail]