2 UMMA Objects
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This vessel made from a hollowed gourd is covered by animal skin and plugged by a finely carved, wooden head. The gourd visually creates a bulbous body for the figure. Further enhancing the anthropomorphic effect are small wooden rods, two of which appear below either side of the head resembling arms and held in place by twisted fiber. The head itself features prominent, rounded eyebrows, narrowly opened eyes, a perfectly rounded mouth, and a rectangular chin.
Songye (Songye)
Gourd
1925 – 1935
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.232
This vessel is formed from a hollowed calabash or gourd, the top of which has been carved to form a lid, decoratively patterned with brass tacks and studded by a handle at the center. Snake skin covers the rounded base of the calabash conferring a coarse texture. Several holes have been drilled around the top perimeter of the base from which metal rings holding iron clappers or bells dangle. An array of man-made, animal, and vegetal objects are held inside the vessel, namely, small, wooden anthropomorphic figurines carved with a minimum of physiognomic detail, bird claws, feathers, wings, split cane, and dried seeds. 
Southwestern Songye (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Calabash (kileu)
1905 – 1915
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.231
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