SRI LANKA, 1ST MILLENIUM

This rare group relates to prehistoric fertility cults, typically including phallic figues invested with exaggerated human features, and is one of the most complete of such terracotta votive objects from Sri Lanka; compare with a smaller and less detailed example from the Walter-Grounds Collection, in P. Pal, Icons of Piety, Images of Whimsy, 1987, cat. no. 11; and with a terracotta head from Kilinochchi for the features of the central figure, cf. C.E. Godakumbura, Terracotta Heads, Archaeological Department Colombo, [1965], no. 7, cat. no. 5, p. 41.