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 coral bead collar. Has tiered hairstyle and two inset furrows on forehead. 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 5 1/2" diameter. (Most of neck missing). (The practice of making these heads is now virtually extinct). Found on the Benin Ancestral altars.' See Collection File: Af1954,23.265-281.~Register 1954 Another clay human head, some damage to top of head and base of neck, two lines of beads visible on right side of neck, all are broken away at the other side.