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DOGON Altar Mythical Ladder (Pair with 774, 19th cent., 29 cm)
The companion to item 774, a highly eroded, naturally bifurcated wooden branch forming a miniature Y-shaped ladder, displaying deep, dry desiccation and a crusty, weather-beaten patina. The carved notches are worn smooth from age and environmental exposure.
1. Aesthetic Style and Regional Traits
The Dogon people of the Bandiagara Escarpment are famous for their unique architecture, which utilizes massive Y-shaped wooden ladders to access cliff-side granaries and dwellings. These miniature iterations, however, are completely stripped of practical utility. They are purely symbolic, translating the everyday architectural language of the Dogon into profound metaphysical objects designed to bridge the gap between the terrestrial and the divine. The miniature treatment of the household ladder iconographically transposes mundane vertical movement into cosmic vertical movement.
2. Ritual Function and Nommo Descent
Used almost exclusively in a ritual context, these mythical ladders were placed on binu (totemic) altars or personal household shrines. According to Dogon cosmology, the creator spirits known as the Nommo descended from the celestial realm to bring order to the earth. These miniature ladders act as symbolic, physical pathways, allowing ancestral spirits and the Nommo to safely descend from the heavens to the earthen altar to receive prayers, libations, and sacrifices. The ladder's role is mechanical within the cosmology — it provides the literal route by which spirits travel between worlds.
3. Physical Patina and Age Verification
The physical condition of these two ladders is a testament to their deep antiquity. Both exhibit profound cellular desiccation, structural cracking, and soft, eroded edges that are impossible to artificially replicate. The dry, crusty, and oxidized surface of the wood aligns perfectly with a 19th-century origin, confirming they spent generations exposed to the harsh, arid climate of the Malian cliffs. The smoothing of the notches by environmental weathering rather than handling is itself diagnostic of long stationary altar tenure.
