Osun rod | Photographer:
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Osun rod
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
Plastic
Dimensions
Höhe: ca. 189 cm (inkl. Ständerung)
Gewicht: 13 kg
Objektmaß: 170 x 20 x 23 cm
Gewicht: 13 kg
Objektmaß: 170 x 20 x 23 cm
Material/Technique
Iron, Brass
Current location
Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Inventory number
III C 8509
Provenance and sources
where
Benin [kingdom]
when
18th century-19th century.
where
Nigeria [Land]
Benin [Königreich]
who
Heinrich Bey - Collectors
Description
18th century - 19th century, commissioned work in the Kingdom of Benin; ownership before 1897 currently unknown; presumably looted in connection with the British conquest of Benin, 1897; in unknown possession after the conquest of the Kingdom of Benin; collected on behalf of the firm Bey & Co. between 1897 and 1898 in the territory of the later colonial Nigeria; sold to the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin, 1899.
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