Bambara Ceremonial Water Vessel with Four Mouths

Four mouths, and no clear signal about which one to trust.

This ceremonial water vessel with four mouths is Bambara, from Mali in West Africa, and dates to the 19th century. It is terra cotta. Water vessels had everyday and ritual roles among the Bambara, and pots with extra openings are generally associated with ceremony, though their exact uses are not always recorded. Round side mouths flare from the shoulder beside a central neck. Fields of small punched marks form arches and triangles, and two raised rope-like bands circle the middle. Twenty and a half inches high and sixteen across.

Pouring from it would have taken some thought.