Bura Figurative Vessel Top, Based

Look closely at a leaf and you will find the pattern again here: one long ridge, veins branching away on either side.

It is a Bura vessel top from Niger, made in the 11th to 15th centuries. Heads of this kind often take the form of a broad, flattened oval, and they were placed above jars in burial grounds along the Niger River. The ridge runs from crown to brow, perhaps describing a coiffure. Below it the face has softened with erosion, its features reduced to faint swellings near the lower edge. The orange clay is grainy and evenly weathered.

Nine inches, on a black rod. Time did the final carving.