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THE ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION OF BENIN MEMORIAL HEADS *
Author(s) -
WILLETT F.,
SAYRE E. V.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
archaeometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-4754
pISSN - 0003-813X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2000.tb00874.x
Subject(s) - chronology , archaeology , elemental analysis , composition (language) , benin city , sequence (biology) , geology , metallurgy , geography , art , chemistry , materials science , literature , general surgery , teaching hospital , biochemistry , medicine , organic chemistry
Among the Nigerian cast copper‐alloy artefacts, the chronology of the Benin memorial heads has been the most fully worked out. Therefore, a study focused upon their elemental compositions is particularly likely to be interpretable in terms of development of the alloys used in their making. The elemental analyses, both published and unpublished, of 66 Benin heads, supplemented with seven analyses of some artefacts excavated from a well‐dated, very early Benin site, have been collected, analysed statistically and computed to the elemental analyses of 11 heads and figures from Udo. All but a very few of the Benin heads and artefacts separate into five compositional groups, indicating a chronological sequence of different alloying traditions. All but one of the Udo objects fall into a distinctly separate compositional group, together with two Medicine heads. The compositional groups correlate remarkably well with the stylistic types proposed by Dark.