General view | Photographer: Martin Franken | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
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Osun rod (plastic)
Rods on the Osun altars not only symbolise the power of the plants of the forest, their material, iron, contains this power itself. They were used by ritual specialists in oracles, for healing and above all as a means against witchcraft, an all-encompassing threat. Birds, snakes, chameleons and animal horns filled with dangerous substances illustrate the occult powers.
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Data Provider
Ethnologisches Museum
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Cataloguing data
Object type
Osun rod (plastic)
Dimensions
Weight: 12,2 kg
Diameter: 2,5 cm
Height: 178,5 cm
Depth: 22,5 cm
Width: 21 cm
Diameter: 2,5 cm
Height: 178,5 cm
Depth: 22,5 cm
Width: 21 cm
Current location
Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Inventory number
III C 9954
Provenance and sources
where
Benin [kingdom]
when
18th century-19th century.
where
Nigeria [Land]
Benin [Königreich]
who
William Downing Webster (de.fiz.ddb.model.ddbobject.WhenType$Begin@66ea2a12 - de.fiz.ddb.model.ddbobject.WhenType$End@6049b725) - Collectors
Description
Commissioned in the Kingdom of Benin in the 18th or 19th century; ownership before 1897 currently unknown; probably looted in connection with the British conquest of Benin, 1897; in unknown ownership between Feb. 1897 and 1899; acquired by the Museum of Ethnology from William D. Webster, 1899.
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