Urhotọ (altar tableau) are displayed on an ancestral altar dedicated to the 

, who was usually entitled to an Urhotọ in her ancestral shrine. Just like the Ọba, after her death, an altar was erected in her memory within Uselu Palace and Ọba Palace. These altars would be decorated with a collection of objects related to achievements in life.

Urhotọ are usually placed on ancestral altars amid other typical altar objects, such as commemorative heads, bells and carved altar tusks. They are usually made up of a square or rectangular cast base with a square opening at the centre. The commemorated Ọba or Iy’Ọba is placed centrally, and attendants, courtiers and chiefs flank them on either side. The bases are usually decorated with a guilloche motif seen throughout the arts of the Benin royal court, and iconographic motifs such as elephant trunks ending in fists, mudfish and ram heads.

Queen mother altar tableaux began being cast in the eighteenth century, a time when court arts flourished once again, after a period of turmoil in the seventeenth century (Ezra, 1992

Urhotọ

Asẹbẹrhia (altar rings) are displayed on ancestral altars dedicated to the Iy’Ọba, as she was usually entitled to one. Just like the Ọba, after her death an altar in her memory was erected within the palace and decorated with a collection of objects related to her achievements in life. The Asẹbẹrhia usually consists of figures around a principal figure with a circular base. They are made by the Igun Eronmwon.

Asẹbẹrhia are brass cast objects in a ring-shaped form, measuring between 20 and 26 cm in diameter. The iconography is often related to sacrificial themes: birds pecking the corpses of decapitated people lying prone with their hands tied behind their back. A central figure is usually depicted standing with a gong in one hand and a staff in the other. Researchers have divided these rings into different three groupings, the largest of which dating to the Benin middle period, between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Nevadomsky, 1989

Altar Ring

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The British Museum’s archives are held in various locations across the institution. The items listed here aim to give an overview of the main locations where relevant archival and photographic material relating to objects from the Kingdom of Benin is housed. Key areas relevant for cultural objects from the Kingdom of Benin are: Corporate Archives; Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas archives; Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory archives; and the Anthropology Library and Research Centre.

Website

Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas 

Online Catalogue

Library & Archive

British Museum

Internal Data (eng)

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British Colonial Military Campaign on Benin, February 1897

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