Igbo Ukwu bronzes created in West Africa

1270

Smiths in the Niger delta region cast delicate bronze vessels, leopards, and ritual pendants using lost-wax techniques of remarkable finesse. The objects, buried in a regional chief's grave, demonstrate an independent West African metallurgical tradition centuries before Portuguese arrival. The discovery of these bronzes in the twentieth century overturned assumptions about African technological development and revealed a sophisticated artistic tradition of great antiquity.