Kneeling figure
- Object Name
- Kneeling figure
- Culture / Site
- Excavated at Natamatao, Mopti region, Mali
- Medium
- Terracotta
- Date
- 12th/14th century
- Dimensions
- 46 x 22.4 x 21.5 cm
- Credit Line
- Musée national du Mali, Bamako, 90.25.10. Photograph by Seydou Camara
- Section
- Saharan Frontiers/Connecting Trade to the Niger River
- Description
This terracotta figure of a seated man was found at Natamatao, Mali, alongside skeletons of horses and humans. It was part of a widespread local terracotta sculpture tradition that stretched from the tenth to the fifteenth century. The Niger River’s fertile inland delta supported a thriving urbanism in the Middle Ages that included more than sixty interdependent communities. At Natamatao, excavations unearthed materials associated with trans-Saharan trade, notably a bundle of imported copper ingots. Bracelets and pendants, like those depicted this figure, might well have been made of brass, a copper alloy.