ORACLE
Artist: Unknown
Culture/People: Batak
Place: Sumatra, Indonesia
Media: Bone
Dims: 9.5 x 2 in.
Date: late 19th or early 20th C.
Description
Aurora Escobedo (Tesuque Pueblo), a Coe Hands-On student curator in 2018 studied this piece. This is what she thought it might be: This is a calendar to show prophecies and which days to look for in the future. Shapes and figures are carv-ed on what is believed to be animal bone. What appears as writings all focused around what seems to be a person on the Oracle bone intrigued me. I recognized how the symbols were placed and could mean this was a type of log; math, shapes and animal figures were all charted.
RTC No: AS0020
Gift of Ralph T. Coe, 2011
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