Bura Terracotta Funerary Burkina Faso

Terracotta Bura Funerary Fragment Burkina Faso, Niger

This terracotta piece is close to those found on Bura terracotta grave markers. The Bura People live in Burkina Faso and Niger. They are well-known for their stunning terracotta found in burials and with dates ranging between the 3rd and the 11th centuries. We don't know the age of the offered piece. We assume it is from a more recent period. We have not had this thermoluminescence tested. Some Bura funeral terracotta could be large, nearly two feet in height in the shape of an elongated cone figural or abstract. These funeral objects were created as though one would shape a pot, tapering it to the head and adding the various surface embellishments. Works such as this tell us of the long-standing role of art in African society in as much as the art of the potter far outlasts the art of the woodcarver as wood sculpture is victim to breakage due to use, fire, and the ever-present termite. Therefore these terracotta sculptures mark rituals no longer practiced and art forms now long forgotten.

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