Funeral vessel

Funeral ritual vessel used in the funerals of a king, a notable or an ancestor. The Bura they were dedicated to grazing and agriculture and were installed in the Burnu region about 250 km away. north of Lake Tchad in the highlands north of Bin, south-west of Niger, near the river of the same name. These effigies, though very similar, are never identical. They are characterized by the flat shape of the head. Some of these small funeral urns are lengthened in the form of a bottle or phallic. Many of them, like this one, represent characters with scarifications on their faces and a kind of cross straps on their chests, which could be the tahali that supports the carcaj or the weapons. Once these pieces have fulfilled their function in ceremonies they are destroyed, buried or recovered for family cults.