Bura Figurative Vessel Top, Based

Before there was a lid, there was a face.

Modeled in clay by the Bura people of Niger between the 11th and 15th centuries, this terra cotta head once crowned a vessel. Such sculptures turn up at burial sites in the Niger River valley, tied to the jars of funerary practice. Nine and a quarter inches tall. A rounded cylinder, a long ridge of nose, small pierced holes for eyes with more perforations above, a little mouth below. Soft pinkish buff, chalky where eroded.

It waits on a custom mount. Patiently, as always.