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 beaded coral collar. Head has tiered hairstyle and three inset scarification marks above each eye; impressed irises. Hole through top of head.
The Wellcome Historical Medical Museum flimsy inventory card records: 'Head. Terra cotta, showing detail of headdress and necklet; hole running through centre. 9" x 5 1/2". (Large part of headdress missing). 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 Af1954,23.272], top of head damaged.