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COMMEMORATIVE HEAD
The art of Benin was essentially art of the court, created to honor the king, or oba, and his ancestors, as well as important dignitaries. This head, believed to represent an oba because of the pattern of the scarification on the forehead, has a hole at the top for the insertion of a carved ivory tusk with scenes that exaulted the oba. The head would have been placed in a shrine in the palace along with other sculptures to give honor to the ancestors of the oba as a means of ensuring the well-being of the community.
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