Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Medieval Trans-Saharan Trade

More than 100 assembled artworks and archeological fragments will help audiences discover the far-reaching impact of historic trans-Saharan exchange and the overlooked role of West Africa at the forefront of these developments. Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Medieval Trans-Saharan Trade challenges the widely held bias of a timeless Africa that is cut off from the dynamics of world history.

Using objects as points of entry and inquiry, Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time will interweave the art history, archaeology, history and comparative literature of trans-Saharan trade, situating it within a broad geographical and historical context.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.         

Image: Bioconical bead, Egypt or Syria, 10th -11th century Gold; filigree, granulation, "rope" wire L. 7.2 cm, H. 2.9 cm, The Aga Khan Museum, AKM618. 

Image: Virgin and Child, ca. 1275–1300, France, Ivory with paint, 14 1/2 × 6 1/2 × 5 in. (36.8 × 16.5 × 12.7 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art Gift of  J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917, 17.190.295