Bura Figurative Vessel Top, Based

A face on top of a pot. That is the whole idea.

The Bura of Niger made this vessel top between the 11th and 15th centuries. The culture is known chiefly from burial sites along the Niger River, where pots, some crowned with stylized human heads, were set among the dead. This fragment is six inches tall. An elongated head, a long ridge of a nose, a straight brow, a small horizontal mouth, all above a smooth cylindrical neck.

The clay is warm orange, speckled with dark inclusions and softly pitted from burial. A black stand holds it up. The features are pared to essentials. Calm, and very hard to look away from.