Effigy Feast Bowl

Feast bowls of the historic Woodlands and Eastern Plains peoples represent an ancient sculptural tradition. The bowls were carved from burls, or knots, that formed in the trunks of a variety of hardwoods. Although difficult to carve, the dense, swirling, tightly patterned grain of burls resisted cracking and breaking, allowing carvers to achieve a remarkable thinness in the finished forms. The irregular, undulating rims of many bowls, including this one, are unquestionably intentional; it would appear the carvers sought to retain the organic structure and living presence of the tree.