Museum Identification Labels for Fish Trap from Awgbu

Image Artifacts

Comparative table showing three museum identification labels (A, B, and C) for a fish trap.

Documentation of labels associated with a fish trap collected in Awgbu. Photograph by Paul Basu.

A photograph depicting a comparative catalog table of three museum specimen identification tags associated with a fish trap collected by Northcote Thomas in Awgbu (present-day Anambra State, Nigeria). Label A is an aged brown paper tag with printed text identifying the 'Thomas Collection' and 'S. Nigeria 1910–13', alongside handwritten notations including the accession number Z.13941 and the term 'Obu'. Label B is a cream-colored tag with handwritten text in dark and red ink, marked 'FRAGILE' and referencing the same accession number Z13941. Label C is a cream paper tag with the handwritten notation 'Nga Azu'. These labels provide historical documentation of the object's provenance and identification within the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.

Community Notes

Onyeka Nwokike

Oct 14, 2026

The fish trap is constructed from strips of bamboo tied with plant fibres. Prior to undergoing reconstruction in the UCL Conservation Lab, the object was described as being little more than a pile of sticks due to its fragile state, as detailed in Museum Affordances.

Onyeka Nwokike

Oct 14, 2026

Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868:1936), the collector of this item, served as the first trained anthropologist appointed to the role of Government Anthropologist by the British Colonial Office. This position represented an early attempt to utilize the discipline of anthropology as a mechanism for colonial governance, according to N. W. Thomas.

Onyeka Nwokike

Oct 14, 2026

The linguistic marker Nga Azu found on Label C references the Igbo word azu, which means fish, as noted by Igbotique.