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1899.70.2

Tortoise shell used as a drum.

1899.70.2

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Tortoise shell used as a drum.
Geographical reference
Nigeria
Africa > Western Africa > Nigeria
Benin
Cultural groups
Edo
Person
Field collector Unknown Collector
PRM source George Fabian Lawrence
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1899
Date collected
By 1899 probably 1897
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1899
Materials and processes
Material Tortoise Carapace Reptile, Material Cane Plant, Process Perforated, Process Tied
Dimensions
Height: max 85 mm, Length: max 270 mm, Width: max 170 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1899.70.2
Research and responses

This tortoise shell drum was purchased for the Pitt Rivers Museum from George Fabian Lawrence in February 1899. Lawrence was an antiquities dealer who ran a shop in Wandsworth, London, through which many objects taken from Benin City in 1897 passed.

Associated publications
Listed as no B9/12 on p. 2.1.32 in Philip J. C. Dark, An Illustrated Catalogue of Benin Art, Boston, MA: G. K. Hall, 1982.

Search terms: Music, Musical Instrument, Slit Drum

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