Lot Essay
Basaltic stone monoliths have been found almost exclusively in the five village groups of Nnam, Nselle, Abanyom, Nde and Akaju, who live in the middle of the Cross River area of Nigeria and who speak Bakor, a sub-dialect of the larger linguistic group known as Ekoi or Ejagham.
The monoliths were first described by Charles Partridge in 1905 in the Nnam village of Alok, but by 1968 Philip Allison had listed over five hundred, mostly arranged in circles in abandoned villages. Ekpo Eyo records that today they can be found in clusters, or occasionally a single stone is placed beside a large tree. Dates for them vary from the third to the sixteenth century. Some, though not all, feature in the annual New Yam Festivals. They are said to represent ancestors, or more specifically legendary figures.
Allison (1968) records that the Nta and Nselle referred to the carvings as akwanshi (literally "dead person in the ground") but that elsewhere they were called atal. Eyo (Phillips, 1995, p.375) records that akwanshi is now used by the Nta and Nselle for small uncarved stones representing ancestors (the Nnam, Abanyom and Akaju call such stones akuku), but the large stones are called netal by the Nta, alapatal by the Nselle and atal by the Akaju, and refer to legendary figures. We should not rule out that a slight change has taken place in both the appellation and use of such stones.
Two similarly-decorated stones to the present one, from the Nkrigor village site, Nselle, are illustrated by Allison (1968, Pl.36, 37)
The monoliths were first described by Charles Partridge in 1905 in the Nnam village of Alok, but by 1968 Philip Allison had listed over five hundred, mostly arranged in circles in abandoned villages. Ekpo Eyo records that today they can be found in clusters, or occasionally a single stone is placed beside a large tree. Dates for them vary from the third to the sixteenth century. Some, though not all, feature in the annual New Yam Festivals. They are said to represent ancestors, or more specifically legendary figures.
Allison (1968) records that the Nta and Nselle referred to the carvings as akwanshi (literally "dead person in the ground") but that elsewhere they were called atal. Eyo (Phillips, 1995, p.375) records that akwanshi is now used by the Nta and Nselle for small uncarved stones representing ancestors (the Nnam, Abanyom and Akaju call such stones akuku), but the large stones are called netal by the Nta, alapatal by the Nselle and atal by the Akaju, and refer to legendary figures. We should not rule out that a slight change has taken place in both the appellation and use of such stones.
Two similarly-decorated stones to the present one, from the Nkrigor village site, Nselle, are illustrated by Allison (1968, Pl.36, 37)