This object, now in a musuem in Harare, Zumabwe, dates from 1300. Purely indigenous drum? Replica of the Ark of the Covenant? The ways we attach meaning to ancient objects tells us far more about the present than about the past.
This 1st century BCE “Ara Pacis” celebrates fertility with breastfeeding children on a woman’s lap along with other symbols of fecundity. The artistic program matched…