Koma Terra Cotta Funerary Figure, Based

One brow is hatched. The other is not. The potter probably had a reason.

This Koma head in terra cotta was hand-built in northern Ghana between the 13th and 17th centuries. Figures like it were left in mounds whose precise ritual purpose is still debated, though a link to burial and ancestors is generally accepted. The rounded skull rises to a small knob of hair. Ringed eyes look out above flared, pierced nostrils, and a small hole opens the mouth between thick lips. Ears sit high at the sides. The pinkish clay is soft and sandy.

Seven and three quarter inches, on a thin iron rod. It listens.