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Double bowl

These carved wooden bowls would hold foods to welcome visitors. They were made by Zulu people of South Africa.

They are held together by a central handle.

Northampton Museum and Art Gallery
1800-1900
South Africa
Wood

Traditional Zulu cuisine is served with wooden bowls and spoons, and in this particular example one bowl would hold meat - typically goat or oxen which were often ritually slaughtered - and the other would hold a wet relish - typically a meat gravy or vegetable stew into which small, hand-rolled balls of polenta-like stiff maize called puthu would be dipped.

Researched as part of the Knowledge of the unseen project.

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Not on display