Koma Terra Cotta Funerary Figure, Based

Thousands of heads have come out of the mounds of northern Ghana. Each one, it seems, has something to say with its mouth.

This Koma terra cotta, attributed to the 13th through 17th century, has an open, everted mouth pushing forward from the face, above heavy-lidded eyes and a broad nose. A ridge of raised dots runs across the brow and over the crown. A short neck tapers below. Reddish clay, granular and weathered. Eight and a half inches tall on a slender rod and base.

Such figures are thought to concern burial and the dead. Listen anyway.