Photos of Terracotta Figures

 

 

(1) The photos of this group (1) were taken during F. Kröger's first visit in Yikpabongo 1981 (see photo 1) before the first excavations by Prof. James Anquandah. The figures were found in various Yikpabongo households where they remained after the photos had been taken.

 

In 1981 there were no bridges over the Sisili River. The author and his mobilette (carried by some helpers) had to cross the river at a shallow spot. This janiform figure (height appr. 30 cm), was found in the compound of one of the two chiefs. This sculpture was probably a lid for a (knobbed?) vessel. The janiform figure(s) is wearing arm-daggers on both left forearms.

 

 

 

(2) Komaland-Terracottas in the context of religious cults of the Bulsa and Koma

 

In Wiaga-Zamsa (Bulsa area) people "hid" two terracotta heads under the big stones of an earth shrine. In 1978, the time of the visit, the earthpriest (in the middle with calabash helmet) offered sacrifices to the earthshrine only, not to the two figures.

The first published photo of Komaland- terracottas (Kröger 1981) represents Anaanateng (with calabash helmet)

and his wife, the first ancestors of the autochthonous Bulsa.


 

 

 

In 2001 the heads had been positioned on top of the ancestral shrine where they now receive sacrifices.

Two old terracottas on top of a clan-shrine (ngming-jorung) in Yikpabongo

(photo 2001)