This figure is a fragment of the cover of a Philippine secondary funerary burial jar. Secondary funerary jars were used to hold the exhumed remains of the Manobo people of the Kulaman plateau who flourished at around 500AD. These ritual containers would comprise of the jar, and the cover or lid. The jars are usually carved in complex geometric and linear motifs that is continued onto the lid. Sometimes, however, the handle of the lid were carved with anthropomorphic forms instead, such as this fragment offered here. It is not clear if the figures represent the spirit of the person whose remains the jars hold or whether they represent other animistic spirits such as the grain deities embodied in the bu-lul sculptures of the Ifugoan tribes. The face on the is figure is achieved through shallow incisions to schematically represent anthropomorphic forms, deep gouges for the eyes, a mere suggestion of a nose, a seemingly half-open mouth.

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