Koma Ceramic Funerary Figure, Based

Two round eyes and a grin that runs nearly ear to ear. Centuries underground have not dimmed it.

This funerary figure is Koma, from Northern Ghana, West Africa, and dates to the 13th to 17th century. It is terra cotta, mounted on a base. Figures like this have been recovered from burial mounds in the Koma region, and their exact purpose is still generally debated by archaeologists. The head is long and wedge shaped, with ringed, bulging eyes, a straight nose and a wide mouth framed by thick lips. A band of small impressions crosses the brow, and the body tapers below into a broken stump. It stands 8 inches high and 2.5 wide.

The expression has outlasted everything else, which seems only fair.