Terracotta Head from Niger in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

One of a Pair of Heads
3rd–11th century, excavated 1985


Object Details

Title: Pair of Heads

Date: 3rd–11th century, excavated 1985

Geography: Niger, Bura Region

Culture: Bura-Asinda-Sikka Site

Medium: Terracotta

Dimensions: (a) H. 7 15/16 × W. 3 11/16 × D. 1 15/16 in. (20.2 × 9.3 × 5 cm)
(b) H. 6 13/16 × W. 2 15/16 × D. 1 3/4 in. (17.3 × 7.4 × 4.5 cm)

Classification: Ceramics-Sculpture

Credit Line: Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey, Niger


Between the third and tenth centuries, the dead were laid to rest at a site in present-day Niger downstream from the Inland Niger delta. The burial ground’s density and expanse suggest a veritable city of the departed. Several hundred individual graves were marked by upturned pottery urns, some of which were cylinders topped by figurative imagery. The most elaborate of these were full-bodied equestrians, while the most basic were highly abstract, independent heads.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/736507