Part of a collection made by Hugh N Nevins, District Officer, Benin City, for the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. Purchased by the WHMM on 15 January 1929 for £3.0.0.
Commemorative head, part of; made of terracotta. Human head depicted wearing high beaded coral collar, beaded udaeba headband and hair plaits terminating in beads at both sides of head. Head has tiered hairstyle, three inset scarification marks above each eye. Hole through centre of head.
The Wellcome Historical Medical Museum flimsy inventory card records: 'Head. Terra cotta, showing detail of headdress and necklet. (Back part missing). Hole running through centre. 10" x 5 1/2". Found on the Benin Ancestral altars. (The making of these heads is now virtually extinct).' See Collection File: Af1954,23.265-281. ~Register 1954 Another [clay human head], similar [to Af1954,23.266], top of the head damaged and the back broken away.