Tellem Statue - Dogon From Mali

Very beautiful and old Tellem statue of the DOGON of MALI in wood with a thick crusty patina from use height 42cm Base eroded by its seniority The Tellem ("those who were before us", according to the expression of the Dogons) are a people who lived in Mali, in the Bandiagara cliff, in what will become the Dogon Country. In the rocky cavities of this red cliff, clay constructions house the bones of the Tellem as well as remnants of their civilization, well before that of the Dogons. The arrival of the Tellems in Bandiagara - where they would have succeeded the Toloys - goes back to the 11th century. Archaeological excavations have made it possible to find many bones but also objects such as fabrics, basketry, pearls, pottery... They lived as troglodytes, building their houses in the cliff. Small in size, they are, wrongly, often associated with pygmies. They lived by fishing, gathering, hoe-farming, cattle-raising and bow-hunting. In the necropolises, they placed the offerings alongside the deceased, sometimes in their clothes (the women wore a cache-sex of braided fibers) or sometimes wrapped in blankets. The skeletons lying scattered, obviously the remains were gradually moved in order to save space for new burials. In order to be able to establish the biological identity of the Tellem population, these skeletons were examined. They all belong to a single group, with recognizable anthropometric characters, whose genetic composition has not changed much during the five centuries of its existence. In the 14th century, the Dogons, coming from the Mandé country and fleeing Islamization, arrived in the cliffs. The Tellem in turn fled to take refuge south in Mali and Burkina Faso. A few Tellem villages still exist around the border with Burkina Faso, including the village of Yoro in Mali using ropes. free shipping worldwide