Koma Ceramic Funerary Figure, Based

Bulging eyes, an open mouth and a ring pendant on the chest, as though caught mid-announcement.

This based funerary figure is Koma, from Northern Ghana, West Africa, dating between the 13th and 17th centuries, and made of terra cotta. Archaeologists generally associate Koma figures with the commemoration of the dead, since many were recovered from mounds built over graves. The head and upper chest survive, with large almond eyes ringed in raised clay, a broad nose and a thick-lipped open mouth. A ridged band crosses the brow, and a coiled collar sits at the neck above a round ring pendant. It is 7.5 inches high, 3 wide and 3 deep.

Plenty to say, and centuries to say it in.