A Bronze sculpture in the style of Benin, Nigeria, of the Queen Mother. "Altars were maintained to commemorate past kings (Obas). These altars supported a variety of ritual objects, such as human heads of cast brass, which were the focus of periodic rituals. These rituals honored past royals. The altar heads served as a spiritual link between royal ancestors and the Edo people of the Benin Kingdom." Source: Digital Benin An interesting question is why so many Benin objects included in the Pitt Rivers book (published in 1900) are not on Digital Benin? Are they no longer in the museum, have they been sold to other museums or private collections, or are there only a reduced selection from the Pitt Rivers collection in Digital Benin? Provenance research should also look at what happened to the objects in the museums after they first appeared in the West. At the moment, Benin research focuses on what was stolen in 1897 and assumes that acquisitions during the colonial period were generally suspected of being criminal offences. This is a very limited view when you look at the whole history of Benin, and what is not even considered is how the museums dealt with these artefacts. How have they been restored? How have they changed since they were kept in the West? wj "The leaders of the kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria trace their origins to a ruling dynasty that began in the fourteenth century. The title of "oba," or king, is passed on to the firstborn son of each successive king of Benin at the time of his death. The first obligation of each new king during this transfer of rule is to commemorate his father with a portrait cast in bronze and placed on an altar at the palace. The altar constitutes an important site of palace ritual and is understood to be a means of incorporating the ongoing influence of past kings in the affairs of their descendents. In honoring the royal ancestors, the cast-brass heads refer to the special role of the head in directing not only the body but also a person's success in life. Taken further, the welfare of the entire kingdom depends upon the king's head, which is itself the object of worship. The placement of brass heads on the ancestral altar is a vivid reminder of the oba's role in successfully guiding the kingdom throughout his reign." Source: The MET