Gurunsi terracotta (Burkina Faso)

Gurunsi grain jar (Sissili province, Burkina Faso)

On both sides of the border between Ghana and Burkina live the Gurunsi, a group of Guru-speaking farmers who have the habit of profusely decorating their houses, their tools and any object of daily use.
Like other peoples of the Sahel, the Gurunsi of southern Burkina keep the fruits of the harvest in sealed jars to prevent rodents and weevils from devouring the millet. But, unlike their neighbors, theirs usually present an anthropomorphic ornamentation that distinguishes and characterizes them.
The grain jar that we present is a medium-sized vessel (46 cm high by 26 cm in diameter) decorated with a network of quadrangular cells that, in the area surrounding the mouth, is completed with a series of crescent-shaped reliefs and a buffalo head. The mouth is trapezoidal, on which there is an operculum with the same shape, culminating with the heads of a man and a woman.

Height: 47.0 cm; Diameter: 30.0 cm; Weight: 7,9 Kg