Koma Female Funerary Figure

Short, thick and hollow-topped, with the shape of a very sturdy tulip.

This Koma terra cotta female funerary figure is Koma, from Northern Ghana, West Africa. Koma figures are generally dated between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, and little is known for certain about the people who made them, which is why study of them continues. Compact, orange-brown body that widens into a hollow, bowl-like top with two soft, rounded lobes. The lower half is a plain, rough, tapering column with a gritty, slightly crusted surface. It is 4.25 inches high and 1.5 in diameter.

Made with bare essentials and a firm sense of volume.