Sago Eating Bowl

Small conical bowl. Coiled construction, somewhat thick walled. Carved and painted. Patterns are red, yellow, and white, outlined in burnished black. Inside is dark terracotta with some black areas. An eating bowl, for individual portions of sago pudding. Supported by a woven fiber ring when in use.

Principal motif, repeated four times with alternating orientation, is a small heart-shaped face with small round eyes and a smiling bow mouth, surmounted by large nested pointed ellipses topped with pairs of small spirals. As in the case of 2013-20-16 the halves of the heart-shaped faces resemble birds’ heads in profile. The spaces between these figures are filled with round black disks surrounded by concentric circles and crescents. The faces and the large ellipses and crescents are textured with small round punctate impressions.