Koma Ceramic Funerary Figure

One eye, dead center, under a small brimmed cap. Everything else fans out in ridges.

This funerary figure is Koma, from Northern Ghana, West Africa, and dates to the 13th to 17th century. It is terra cotta. Koma figures range from fairly naturalistic heads to strongly abstract forms, and their makers clearly felt free to simplify. Here the head rises into a cone topped by a round knob with a brim. A single oval eye, ringed by a raised rim, sits in the middle of the face. Below it, deep horizontal ridges project from both sides, and the surface is a weathered, earthy brown. It is 4.5 inches high and 3.25 wide, on a black base.

Minimalism, several centuries early.