Koma Terra Cotta Funerary Figure, Based

A tongue. A real tongue, stuck out, in clay, between the 13th and 17th centuries.

Koma figures were left in mounds in northern Ghana, apparently in connection with burial and remembrance, and they range from simple cones to animated faces like this one. A wide, grinning mouth with a protruding tongue dominates. Goggle-like rings circle the eyes, the nose is short and broad. Tight clay pellets cover the crown, suggesting hair, and a rounded beard extends below the chin. Pale buff clay, weathered and granular. Ten inches tall with its mount.

Among the most expressive of the lot, and it knows. Give it a shelf.