Koma Terra Cotta Funerary Figure, Based

Northern Ghana. Burial mounds. Clay heads and figures laid with the dead, somewhere between the 13th and 17th centuries.

This terracotta funerary figure belongs to that Koma tradition. It is an elongated, tapering form about eight and a half inches tall. A braided band crowns the flat-topped head. The face is all large ringed eyes, a projecting nose, an open, protruding mouth above a pointed, beard-like chin. The reddish-brown clay is rough and earthy, with pale mineral deposits lingering in the recesses.

A quiet record of its time in the ground. It has no complaints.