Summary edit

African potters--primarily women--handbuild a variety of vessels that they embellish with beautiful colors, designs and motifs before firing them at low temperatures. Containers made for daily use hold water or serve as cooking utensils. They also make vessels to be used in special ceremonies or that become part of an assemblage of objects placed in a shrine. The vessel's form--a nearly spherical body, restricted mouth and a neck with a wide flared rim--is complex. The decoration includes bosses encircling the neck, alternating rows of incised horizontal and vertical lines on the shoulder and three raised, parallel rows with deep incisions at the mid-section. Anthropomorphic and geometric forms in low relief and a semicircle with rays drawn against a roulette-textured surface decorate the shoulder. The lower portion of the vessel consists of double rows of incised lines and wide solid bands. The embellishment of this vessel reinforces the idea that it was used for ritual purposes. This vessel, similar to others from the Ekiti area, may have contained water used to wash a bride's feet before she entered her husband's house.

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by cliff1066™ at https://www.flickr.com/photos/28567825@N03/2922760599. It was reviewed on 27 June 2011 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

27 June 2011