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; made of terracotta. Human head depicted wearing high beaded coral collar and beaded udaeba headband. Head has tiered hairstyle and hair plaits terminating in beads at both sides of head. Three raised scarification marks above each eye. Hole through centre of head.
The Wellcome Historical Medical Museum flimsy inventory card records: 'Head. Terra cotta, dark colour, showing detail of headdress and necklet. Hole running through centre.(slightly chipped). 7" x 4 1/4". 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 Af1954,23.267], no major damage but facial features rather worn.