Globular terracotta pseudo-vessels from the Inland Niger Delta, Mali

Funerary pseudo-vessels are repositories of ancestral souls; they carry not only messages from the living to the dead, but also provisions – both spiritual and material – for the deceased. Jenné (Djenné) globular terracotta pseudo-vessels (13-16th centuries CE) are snake-ornamented spheroids which modern Dogon informants have interpreted as rice and millet granaries. One specimen was indeed found to contain rice grains and boiled millet, suggesting that the globular pots may have been grave goods that contained food offerings for use in the afterlife.