Zulu Terra Cotta Incised Vessel

A pot, they say, is only as honest as the hands that shaped it. This one has nothing to hide.

Zulu, South Africa, early twentieth century. Terra cotta, eleven inches tall and a foot across, bellied low and wide, with a flared neck. The surface is a deep, burnished brown, nearly the color of strong tea. On the shoulder, a medallion of fine incised lines: triangles, arcs, a hatched field, all scratched through to pale clay.

Pottery of this kind carries pattern as its voice. The lines are quiet but they are exact.

Fill it with nothing. It is already full.