Reliquary Head (angokh nlo byeri)

This head would have served as part of a reliquary ensemble, and was originally placed on a box containing portions of the skulls of important ancestors, similar to the Fang reliquary guardian figure (eyema-o-byeri) nearby. Both objects served to demarcate and ritually protect these powerful and historically important relics. Reliquary heads such as this one are comparatively rare. The geometry evident in the oval-shaped head, combined with the highly abstract manner in which the artist has rendered the hairstyle, suggest why heads such as this one were so popular with modernist artists in early 20th-century Europe.