Production
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where
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Benin [kingdom]
Photographer: Jörg von Bruchhausen | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
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Photographer: | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Full screen
Initial display
Zoom in
Zoom out
Previous image
Next image
Downloads the object
This collection item does not have a name in the language of origin. If you know the name or have comments, use this form to contact the data-providing institution.
Memorial head of a dignitary
Like the kings, dignitaries and village chiefs also erected memorial altars to their deceased predecessors. Ritual sacrifices at these altars strengthened the relationship between the living and their ancestors. The furnishings of the altars are comparable to those of the royal memorial altars. The decisive difference lies in the use of certain materials that were an expression of Benin's hierarchical society. Brass for memorial heads and altar figures or ivory were, with a few exceptions, reserved for the king. On the memorial altars of people of lower rank were memorial heads made of wood, some of which were covered with thin sheet brass as an expression of special privilege on the part of the king.
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- Data Provider
- Ethnologisches Museum Show original at data provider
Cataloguing data
- Object type
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
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Height: 63 cm
Width: 30 cm
Depth: 30 cm
Weight: 7,8 kg - Material/Technique
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Wood, Metal
, Patina
- Current location
- Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- Inventory number
- III C 39822
Provenance and sources
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Production
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Production
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when
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19th century
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where
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NigeriaBenin
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Collecting
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who
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Arthur Speyer
(1922 - 2007) - Collectors
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Change of legal title:
Acquisition-
Description
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19th century, commissioned in the Kingdom of Benin; ownership before 1897 currently unknown; probably looted in connection with the British conquest of Benin, 1897; in unknown ownership after Feb. 1897; acquired by Arthur Speyer, 1962.
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Assignment to a curated holding:
Africa
Information about the record
- Legal status metadata
- CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED
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