Old African?? powder horn??

[Andy Stevens]

Hello all, had this hanging around for a while, never really liked it to any degree, but have always been curious as to its origins. It's made of horn-rhino? and is 33cm long from the tip of the carving to the tail.The lid section was originally held in place with two wooden dowels, which have long since gone. i'm not sure what the carving represents, but looks kind of like a cross between an antelope and a human. Thanks in advance for any info.

[Rick]

The carving looks Batak to me . :confused: :shrug:

Can you assemble it and give us a picture ? :)

[Sajen]

A second vote for Batak origin! :)

[asomotif]

One more vote for batak.

[Freddy]

I agree : Batak. I think it's some kind of medicine horn. The sorcerer/medicine man in Batak country is called a 'datu'.

Your piece seems to be quite old.

[Andy Stevens]

Thankyou very much for the information! It's strange how an old lurker can turn out to be such an interesting object, I have now begun to read on the Batak people and culture and to my mind, this is one of the great joys of collecting ethnographic objects. To my untrained eye, the horn does look old and appears very functional as opposed to some of the more decorative items on the internet.
Regards Andy

[Rick]

Sure looks like a nice old medicine horn to me .

Whittle a couple of pegs for it .