This is a very rare ancient wooden sculpture of an ancestor from the Dogon peoples of Mali, West Africa. Such idols were often placed on shrines that were in the cliffs above the Dogon villages along the Badgingara escarpment, and after decades and sometimes centuries, the idols would have such a weathered surface, surviving only due to the dry arid sub-saharan climate. Works identified as dege dal nda, or "sculptures of the terrace," were only removed from storage for the funerals of rich men, on which occasions they were dressed and displayed on the rooftop terrace of the deceased. Such figures may also have been part of altars established for women who had died during childbirth. This Idol is clearly quite old and weathered, though what has survived is stable. The figure measures 19.25 inches on custom base. Ex- Merton Simpson collection, New York, New York.

Heavily eroded, fragile