Elephant Man

“You know, they say an elephant never forgets. What they don't tell you is, you never forget an elephant.”

--Bill Murray

For those of you who don’t know, one of my hobbies is to go to garage sales on weekends. It’s exciting because I never know what i’m going to find—There are just all sorts of treasures and curiosities out there! So on occasion, I’ll share some of those curious and unique gems, along with what I can find out about them.

To start us off, here’s an interesting find. From what I was able to gather, it is an African Tribal Wood Carving of a man with an elephant head. Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of the information I was able to find regarding these types of statues. However, Elephants themselves are a whole different story!

As it turns out, there are TONS (pun intended) of information about elephants and their symbolic importance throughout the world. Throughout centuries, and even millennia—depending on who you talk to—elephants have been a source of symbolism within all sorts of cultures and religion. From ancient petroglyphs & stone art found during the stone age, to the very well known Hindu god Lord Ganesha, and all the way to modern symbols, logos and even posters.

According to Wikipedia, “Many African cultures revere the African Elephant as a symbol of strength and power. It is also praised for its size, longevity, stamina, mental faculties, cooperative spirit, and loyalty. South Africa, uses elephant tusks in their coat of arms to represent wisdom, strength, moderation and eternity.”

The elephant is symbolically important to the nation of Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire); the Coat of arms of Ivory Coast features an elephant head escutcheon as its focal point.

Even with all the information out there, this bit of information is what I could gather regarding elephants in Africa. Maybe someone out there can help me out and has more to contribute about this curious little artifact! For now I’ll leave you with some more shots of this mysterious wood carving that now adorns a small end table in my living room. Enjoy!

I just want to say thank you for stopping by. Your time is precious and I appreciate you spending it here.

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