Producer unknown to us
Calabash bowl
Africa, Sudan, Kordofan
Before 1973
Calabash, cowries, glass beads, thread
Lothar Stein (former museum director) acquired this bowl during a research trip to Sudan in 1972–73
Donated to the museum by Stein in 1973
NAf 5600
This bowl from a halved calabash has fire decorations applied on its outside. A number of cowries and glass beads are threaded through holes drilled through the wall.
Lothar Stein (*1935) began working at the Leipzig museum in 1960 and served as its director from 1980 to 2001. His professional expertise was in the communities of the Middle East. He was also part of a research focus group on pastoral nomadism in the deserts between West Africa and Central Asia. Since the late 1950s, Stein has made numerous research trips to the Arab region and North Africa and has also been involved in building museums there.
From 1972 to 1973, Lothar Stein was invited to head and expand the ethnological department of the Sudanese National Museum in Khartoum. During this time, he undertook two extensive trips to nomadic communities in the west of the country to collect objects for the museum in Khartoum, as well as the Leipzig museum.
Frank Usbeck