recordNumber
1444320
Institution
Field Museum
Edo designations
English designations
Relief Plaque
Categories
Palace Architecture & Ornamentation
Location
1400 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60605, United States
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Relief Plaque
Relief Plaque
Relief Plaque
Relief Plaque
Relief Plaque
Relief Plaque
Relief Plaque

Iconographies

2 annotations
Ehẹn
Fish

Ehẹn is a general term used to describe various types of fish (Ọbazee 2025, p. 90; ). Although mudfish are one of the most common motifs in Benin art, other kinds of fish are also represented. According to Blackmun ( ), a greater variety of fish are represented on the Aken'ni Elao (carved tusks) than on other types of royal artefacts. According to Kathy Curnow ( ), fish appear on 70 Ama-Ẹrọnmwọn (bronze relief plaques), making them the most commonly represented animal. Despite their prevalence, the precise species of fish are not easy to identify due to their “generic renderings”, possibly indicating that artists did not always distinguish between specific varieties ( ). Fish are represented on the Ama-Ẹrọnmwọn both in profile and from above.

1 annotation
Ehẹn
Water fern
Ebe Amẹ
Water Fern

Ebe Amẹ refers to a wide variety of plants, particularly the leaves of the water fern or river leaf, found in riverine areas of southern Nigeria ( ). Artists from the Igun-Ẹrọnmwọn used these as a decorative motif in the background of most Ama-Ẹrọnmwọn (bronze relief plaques). The petals of the Ebe Amẹ, like the points of the ἀghàdàgháda (crossroads), represent the four cardinal directions: north, east, south, and west. The number four plays a foundational role in the Edo calendar, which is structured around four market days ( ).

1 annotation
Ebe Amẹ

Provenance

4 events
Production
1504 (approximate) to 1550 (approximate)
The object was produced by Unknown member(s) of the Igun-Ẹrọnmwọn guild in Benin City.
Looted
February 22, 1897 (day approximate) to June 1899 (year approximate)
The object was looted by February 1897 Unknown member of the British colonial military campaign on Benin from Benin Kingdom.
Unknown
February 22, 1897 (day approximate) to 1905
The object is known to have come into contact with William Downing Webster, later in London.
Purchase
1905
The object was purchased by the Field Museum from William Downing Webster from London to Chicago.

Related archival documents

3 documents
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Date
Date
Date

Institution data

Field Museum
The data was transferred directly by the institution.
Last updated: 2022-01-21
Language: english
Institution fieldValue
catalogNumber
object id
89770
occurrenceID
object id
9c74030e-8878-4d92-a945-c4afbf305a65
recordNumber
object id
1444320
culturalArtefactDescription/1/Full_Description
description
bronze plaque; fish in high relief; scales represented by incised curved lines on body and diamond designs on head; smaller fish protruding from mouth; ground ornamented with foil ornaments; Dimensions: L = 36.7 cm; 14 1/2"; W = 7"
culturalArtefactDescription/1/null
description
culturalArtefactDescription/3/Full_Description
description
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description
culturalArtefactDescription/4/null
description
materials
material
metal; bronze
culturalArtefactDescription/0/Basic_Description
object type
plaque
culturalArtefactFunction
object type
culturalArtefactParts
object type
period
date made
culturalArtefactDescription/3/Technical_Description
production technique
culturalArtefactDescription/4/Technical_Description
production technique
locality
production place
Benin City
Accession info
prior source
[976] W. D. Webster (Purchase)
culturalAffiliation
ethnic attribution
Edo
dates/accession_year
accession date
1905
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271
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XXXIV
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Courtesy of: C. J. Philipp. (c) Field Museum of Natural History. CC BY-NC 4.0. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/34e927a9-cc22-4cd8-9203-f9322a86d66e (accessed on 14 Jun 2021)
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Courtesy of: C. J. Philipp. (c) Field Museum of Natural History. CC BY-NC 4.0. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/c36b0de5-3aa0-4ac9-88a7-58249f2c2c31 (accessed on 14 Jun 2021)
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Courtesy of: C. J. Philipp. (c) Field Museum of Natural History. CC BY-NC 4.0. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/253ce9ad-a0c5-45eb-aae6-ebdc8fa82fac (accessed on 11 Oct 2021)
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(c) Field Museum of Natural History. CC BY-NC 4.0. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/ae3edd73-b2f6-4bc4-9518-94896f285551 (accessed on 12 Oct 2021)
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Courtesy of: J. Balodimas. (c) Field Museum of Natural History. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/94d025ca-7586-40ad-99cc-fdbc578bac8c (accessed on 26 Oct 2021)
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Courtesy of: R. Testa. (c) Field Museum of Natural History. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/47479f61-dab3-458d-a8b4-3486e025c07d (accessed on 29 Oct 2021)
multimedia/6/citation
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Courtesy of: R. Gross, C. J. Philipp, J. W. Kennedy. (c) Field Museum of Natural History. CC BY-NC 4.0. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/292eb220-f394-4a14-aa21-3a7c1b8ec261 (accessed on 13 Jan 2022)
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(c) Field Museum of Natural History. CC BY-NC 4.0. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/b33063c2-5775-4b2e-ac20-a284d7f824bd (accessed on 11 Oct 2021)
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(c) Field Museum of Natural History. CC BY-NC 4.0. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/2086f706-9c0e-47e7-811a-42c33f56dfa8 (accessed on 11 Oct 2021)
multimedia/9/citation
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(c) Field Museum of Natural History. CC BY-NC 4.0. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/1bc3f030-2392-4cce-9227-e8152d0f9bb8 (accessed on 11 Oct 2021)
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Sensitive Content

Digital Benin collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards African and African diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Read more about the background of this statement here