Anthropomorphic vessel

A slightly flattened round vessel in thinly hand-built clay. It takes the shape of a stylized human head tilted upwards, a large circular opening being the oversized mouth. The facial features are pared down to the essential: two narrow slits just above the rim of the mouth signal the eyes, two small knobs on either side define the ears, the long narrow nose extend upward across the forehead to the top of the head creating a ridged crest. On either side of the face, a row of seven nods defines the hair. The widely open mouth would have made the content of the vessel clearly visible and accessible. Traces of offerings inside the body of the vessel suggest that they might have been used for ritual purposes.

While information on such ingeniously hand-built vessels is scarce, they have been attributed to Igbo-Izzi potters, an Igbo sub-group in the foremost northern area of the Igbo region. Related examples may have also be created by neighboring Tiv artists. In much of Africa, clay is an artistic medium primarily associated with women. Women are responsible for gathering the clay, hand building the vessels, and firing them in open pits. As such, it is probable that these anthropomorphic vessels were created by female potters as well.