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Digital Benin: An Exemplary Initiative (Website) that Documents Benin Historical Objects Looted by British Troops in 1897 - by Nekpen Obasogie

Digital Benin is an exemplary initiative (website) that brings together all objects, historical photographs and rich documentation material from collections worldwide to provide a long-requested overview of the royal artefacts looted by British forces from the Kingdom of Benin (now Edo State, Nigeria) in February 1897 and distributed in its immediate aftermath. Together, these events and processes led to the worldwide translocation of the objects shown on the platform (digitalbenin.org). Digital Benin     The historic Benin objects are an expression of Benin arts, culture and history, and were originally used as royal representational arts, to depict historical events, to communicate, to worship and perform rituals. The digital Benin platform introduces new scholarship which connects digital documentation about the translocated objects to oral histories, object research, historical context, a foundational Edo language  catalogue, provenance names, a map of the Benin Kingdom and museum collections worldwide. Digital Benin connects data from 5,246 objects across 131 institutions in 20 countries. The website helps to trace these artefacts to their current locations in the world. 

Visit digitalbenin.org for more information

Posted by Nekpen Obasogie

  


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