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 £3.10.0.
Commemorative head; made of terracotta. Human head depicted wearing beaded coral collar. Head has tiered hairstyle, three inset scarification marks above each eye, impressed irises. Hole through centre of head.
The Wellcome Historical Medical Museum flimsy inventory card records: 'Head. Terra cotta, showing detail of headdress and necklet. Hole running through centre. 7" high x 4 1/2" diameter. Found on the Benin Ancestral altars. (The practice of making of these heads is now virtually extinct).' See Collection File: Af1954,23.265-281.~Register 1954 Another [clay human head] similar [to Af1954,23.271] very little damaged, beaded collar and hair dressed in tiers.