Koma Ceramic Funerary Figure, Based

Lying on its side and dotted with bumps, it looks like a figure in the middle of a long nap.

This funerary figure is Koma, from Northern Ghana, West Africa, dating to the 13th – 17th C. It is terra cotta, mounted on a base. Koma pieces come from burial mounds in the region, and scholars generally connect them with funerary custom, though much about their meaning is still unknown. This one is shown horizontally, held on two metal rods above a black plinth. Its elongated body is covered with small raised pellets, and a few rounded projections emerge along the underside. One end opens into a round hollow. The clay is a weathered reddish brown. It is 6.5 inches wide, 3 deep and 4.5 high.

Horizontal, and in no hurry to change that.