Storage Container

This container was probably kept to store valuables, and is a smaller version of vessels that are used primarily to preserve grains and dry goods across the western Sahel and savanna. The form and finish is rough. With its extremely narrow base, this pot appears quite precarious and would have needed to be set into the ground to stand upright. Its only ornament is a raised ribbon that suggests a simply rendered human figure with long arms that form a band around the pot’s mouth and legs that terminate in gentle hooks. Similar ribbonlike embellishments are found on other containers that have been identified as Kurumba and Kasena, peoples living to the north and south of the Mossi heartland. This vessel reportedly stored cowrie shells, once widely used both as currency and as decorations for masquerade costumes. [See also 2005.287 and 2006.745].