Description (Physical description)
Hip ornament for chief (umechwe) of brass (a human head). Made by one of Ine's men. First cast in double mould of mud and wax mixed, then worked with file.
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (Related Documents)
1st Thomas Catalogue notes numbers 1-249 as "Bini (Benin City)". [R.Hand]

Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

Context (Related Documents)
Between 1909 and 1915, Northcote Thomas led four extensive anthropological surveys in Southern Nigeria and Sierra Leone, West Africa viz :Tour 1, Edo-speaking peoples, 1909-10; Tour 2, Igbo-speaking peoples, 1910-11; Tour 3, Igbo-speaking peoples, 1912-13; Tour 4, Sierra Leone, 1914-15

The Thomas Collection was originally registered under two numbers: E 1910.118 , 'a comprehensive collection numbering over 2000 objects including a large number of duplicates, illustrative of the ethnology of the Yoruba, Kukuruku and Esa peoples collected in Southern Nigeria 1909-1910 by N.W. Thomas Nigerian Government Anthropologist', and
E 1913.3 'A large series, of Ibo and Ijo manufacture, collected for the Museum by N.W. Thomas M. A. Government Anthropologist of Southern Nigeria'.

The material was not fully catalogued on arrival but Thomas spent a week 'superintending the work of roughly classifying ad labelling his collections [Ibo and Ijo] and the much of the Assistant's time has been devoted to cleaning, mending and restoring the many specimens which were damaged in transit from Nigeria' (Annual Report 1914:3)

The collections were moved to the newly completed Babington gallery by 1916 (Annual Report 1916:2) and 'a typed lists, giving native names and provenance has been drawn up from the collector's rough registers and labels'. (Annual Report 1917.3)

The material was finally registered in 1947 'the large N.W. Thomas series from West African, which is being catalogued. as part of the assembling of African collections in the Babington Hall thanks to cases acquired from the Anatomy School's relocation. (Annual Report 1947.2)
Event Date
Author: maa

Description (Labels & Markings)
Thomas Collection label accompanies object.
A second old brown luggage type label adds ".....then worked with an iron file, [?] the latter four [word illegible] of iron, made by blacksmiths and roughened with knife cuts."
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

Context (Labels & Markings)
The number '1935' has been written on the left side of the Thomas Collection label.
Event Date
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Context (Related Documents)
Numbered '73' in the Thomas Collection, 1st Catalogue.
Event Date
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Context (Analysis)
In January 2017, Prof. Marcos Martinon-Torres and Agnese Benzonelli, UCL Institute of Archaeology, tested this idno using a portable XRF as part of a programme of base metal analysis of Benin material. This object was tested twice and the results are as follows: 1) Cu: 72.69%; Zn: 25.64%; Sn: 0.13%; Pb: 1.15%. 2) Cu: 72.67%; Zn: 25.61%; Sn: 0.15%; Pb: 1.15%. It was noted that a Zn reading of >25 with Cd suggests a date of 1800+.
Event Date 27/1/2017
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Conservation (Remedial)
CON.2017.3717 | Remedial
Event Date 6/2/2017
Author: Kirstie Williams