Did the Gods of Africa Die? A Re-Examination of a Carroll House Crystal Assemblage

Abstract

The discovery of an African-American ritual cache within the eighteenth-century Carroll House provides an example of a West African-derived nkisi ( minkisi pl). While the exact meaning behind the inclusion of each artifact is not fully understood, the items within the cache are consistent with other documented African minkisi. In this paper, I consider how the images present on previously-excavated ceramic fragments from one of the Carroll House nkisi assemblages yields clues about why they were incorporated into the nkisi. Once the images upon these ceramics are examined as iconographic symbols, their inclusion as part of the nkisi is not only understandable but perhaps imperative toward the overall understanding of the assemblage.

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