The commemorative head, Uhunmwu Elao, of an Ọba placed at the king’s ancestral shrine could be made from bronze, wood or terra-cotta. The altar consists of a commemorative head that supported the carved ivory tusk. It could have a circular base or a rectangular-shaped base. However, they all have a unifying feature, which is the hole at the centre in which the tusk is placed.

Uhunmwu-Elao

Commemorative heads are placed on ancestral altars and shrines. They can be cast in brass, carved in wood or sculpted from clay and fired. Brass commemorative heads would only be cast to furnish a past Ọba’s ancestral shrine and, in a smaller number of cases, the Iy’Ọba. Wooden examples, sometimes with brass plate attached, would be made for titled chiefs. Terracotta heads would be used to furnish the ancestral altars of members of the Igun-Eronmwon, and it is understood that some terracotta heads date to the Ogiso period, predating the thirteenth century. Commemorative heads are not portraits of the deceased but memorials (Bradbury, 1973

Commemorative heads have been crucial in developing chronologies for Benin artworks. These studies have looked at the style and analysis of the copper-alloy composition as well as thermoluminescence dating. However, dating is still a matter of debate, with most scholars agreeing only that heads with flanges are more recent (eighteenth to nineteenth centuries), and those commemorative heads with low zinc percentages in the copper-alloy composition date from late fifteenth to early seventeenth century (for full discussion, see Junge, 2007

Commemorative Head

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Website

Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust

Internal Data (eng)

Stewart, F. 

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Digital Benin linked field	Institution field	Value
object id	Acc/ID Number	WA503003
designation	Object Name	Memorial Head; Uhumwela
description	Description	Carved wooden memorial head or Uhumwela, with carved facial features and body adornment. Carving on the headdress and below the face depict body adornment made of coral beads, denoting high status of the wearer, person depicted. This object would have been placed on the alter of a high-ranking dignity. This object is of cultural significance for Edo/Bini People's, and originates from Benin city. Nigeria. One of two carved heads looted from Benin City during the punitive expeditionof 1897.
description	Description/Acquisition Overview	Accession Register: (one of ) Two carved wooden heads obtained in 1897 during the punitive expeditionto Benin.
material	Materials	Wood
dimensions	Measurements	0380/0000/0000
object type	Record Type	Core
date made	Date Created
production place	Place Created	Benin, Nigeria, West Africa, Africa
prior source	Credit Line
prior source	Donor	Miss F or P Stewart or Steward, address 15 Royal Strand?), Chelsea
provenance	Collector	STEWART F.
provenance	Object (hi)story
date collected	Date Collected
place collected	Place Collected
ethnic attribution	Cultural Grp	EDO; BINI
department and institution	Department	World Art
accession date	Acquistion date	1913, November
notes	New research info 2022
exhibition history	Ext Exhib History
legal status	Legal Status	PERMANENT COLLECTION
	Creator
	Documentation Issues
	History file contents
	Loan Allowed?
	Other no.	R1426/2

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