"Over the last forty years or so, central Mali and, more specifically, the Inland Niger Delta, have supplied the Western art market with hundreds of terracotta figures obtained through clandestine excavations. These so-called Djenne archaeological objects, most of which are figurative and date from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, are now in museum and private collections. The lack of scientific data about their original context has led to considerable guesswork about just what they represent. To remedy this deficiency, we have called on Mande oral tradition that preserves the knowledge of the region as well as upon medical imaging to attempt an interpretation of some of these artworks." [...]