African Artifacts

Objects ranging from oblong dice from the Cameroons to mortars and pestles for grinding are all part of the collection of African artifacts being re-sorted and consolidated at the Peabody Museum.

Marietta B. Joseph, a consultant from Boston University, is working with museum staff members and eight student volunteers to classify over 22,000 objects used in Africans' daily lives. The implements have been collected over the past century from all parts of the African continent.

Funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the project began in January and should be completed around the end of the year, Joseph said yesterday. The collection is currently spread over one entire floor of the Peabody and part of another.