Bura Figurative Vessel Top

A column, a headdress, a long wedge of a nose. Nothing more is needed.

The Bura people of Niger made this vessel top between the 11th and 15th centuries. Pieces like it surmounted jars in their burial grounds, and those jars have become the principal record of an early culture that wrote nothing down. The headdress is domed and finely textured. Rounded ears project at either side. Small breasts and a navel are applied lower on the body, and the base flares to a chipped edge. The clay is a warm, even orange.

Ten and a half inches. Stand it among smaller things and watch them defer.