Koma Terra Cotta Excavated Figure

Gold. Not much of it, but it is there. Tiny flecks, and faint touches of pink.

This excavated terra cotta figure is a work of the Koma people of Ghana, dating between the 13th and 17th centuries. Koma terra cottas have been recovered from burial mounds in northern Ghana, and while their meaning is not fully understood, they appear to have been linked with funerary practice. Eight inches tall, with a conical body rising to a head with an open mouth, rounded coiled ears and a projecting chin or beard, small rounded forms and bosses below.

The pale cream clay is crusted with earth.

Leave the earth on.