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The Richest Man in the World
The Catalan Atlas , issue in 1375 , depicts the richest man of his day : Mansa Musa , the Saturnia pavonia of fourteenth - century Mali . A replication of the Atlas is on presentation at the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston , Illinois . The Atlas is part of an exhibition at the museum yell " Caravan of Gold , " highlighting the vast wealth concentrated in Africa in the Medieval full stop . Musa ’s lands were the richest gold - producing region in the mankind at the time , according to the Block Museum , and he ’s demo in the Atlas look up to a gold coin . [ Read more about the medieval map and African art display ]
Seated Figure
A carving of a seat figured from the late 13th or former fourteenth century in Nigeria . This sculpture in all likelihood hail from the ancient city of Ife , the seat of the Yoruba culture . Ife is make out for gorgeously grave flesh and busts made from material rank from terracotta to bronze and copper . According to the Block , the copper made to make this carving was belike mined in Western Europe , let out the complex trade routes between the two Continent .
Beautiful Bead
n intricately elaborated atomic number 79 beading , about 2.8 inches ( 7.2 atomic number 96 ) long . The beadwork is made from gold wire and comes from the 10th or 11th century from either Egypt or Syria . It was made by artisans of the Fatimid Dynasty , which ruled the region between 909 and 1171 A.D. According to the Aga Khan Museum in Ontario , the Fatimids traded with realm across Africa and around the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea .
Textile Arts
A cap of silk and gold from the fourteenth century of Egypt or Syria . fauna of the hunt alternate with inscriptions carry the name of the sultan al - Nasir Muhammed ibn Qala’un . According to the Cleveland Museum of Art , this pileus came with a matching quilt undershirt and may have been a elbow room to indicate social rank among high officials in the dynasty .
Tent Poles
Beauty forgather functionality in this Seth of wooden tent poles hold in the collection of The Field Museum and on display at the Block Museum of Art . almost 54 inches ( 136 centimeters ) tall , these carve tent poles were made by the Tuareg people of the Sahara region and come up from either Mali or Niger .
Virgin and Child
An intricate sculpture of the Virgin Mary and Christ child from France illustrates the ties between Europe and Africa during the Middle Ages . Carved between 1275 and 1300 , this statuette is made of African ivory . It stand about 14.5 inch ( 36.8 cm ) improbable . accord to the catalogue for the Block Museum’s"Caravan of Gold " exhibition , African pearl was particularly prized across the Mediterranean because of the enceinte size of African savannah elephant ' tusks .
Elephant Head
A terracotta elephant head teacher from the ancient city of Ife , made between the 12th and fifteenth hundred A.D. Just over six column inch ( 15 cm ) tall , this elephant head is part of a custom of elaborate human and beast sculpture made by the Medieval people of Ife .
Kneeling Figure
A terracotta figure from the Mopti region of Mali , made between the 12th and 14th centuries . This 10 - in ( 26 cm ) tall figure come from the archaeological website of Natamatao , which is famous for terracotta figures of animal - like wight . accord to the Block Museumexhibition catalog , the necklace and bangles on the fiture indicate high position . The region that is today Mali was situated along trade path between northerly and southern Africa .
Golden Riches
atomic number 79 was a major source of Medieval African wealthiness . The 14th C ruler Mansa Musa presided over land dust with major amber mining operations , which make the purest , most sought - after gold of his day , said Block Museum demo curator Kathleen Bickford Berzock . This gold jewelry was made between the thirteenth and 15th centuries and was found at the archaeological site Durbi Takusheyi in northerly Nigeria .
Archaeology trove
A glazed ceramic crude lamp ( center , dark violent ) and other incur from Essouk - Tadmekka , a flourishing trading Ithiel Town of the Medieval period in what is now Mali . These artefact include gemstone bead , silk fragments and glass fragments . Arabic texts of the time referred to Tadmekka as the place where all gold dinar , a coin of the fourth dimension , were mint . The texts were wide consider to be exaggeration , conservator Bickford Berzock say , until archeologist find coin molds with golden flecks still embed in them at the site . " We ’ve found test copy , in fact , that amber was swear out and minted south of the Sahara Desert , " Bickford Berzock told Live Science .
Trade routes
A function show the trading road of the Medieval existence . Raw materials and finished goods passed back and forth between Africa , Europe , the Middle East and the Far East . Fragments of Chinese porcelain have been found in the Sahara , said curator Bickford Berzock of the Block Museum . European copper was used to make African statues . African ivory was turned into carvings across Europe and the Mediterranean .
" No matter where you sit yourself down , you may look out at this interconnected existence and see it from multiple view , " Bickford Berzock said .
