A brass plaque of a king on horseback, much larger than the attendants who hold up his arms and shade him

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A plaque of a king on horseback

One of the brass plaques that were fixed, probably in matching pairs, to the wooden pillars of the Oba’s palace. The king is shown far larger than the people around him.1,2

Date
About 1540 to 1570, by the Met’s datingIX · Oceans crossed
Place
Benin City, Nigeria
Type
Relief plaque (ama) · BrassKingdom of Benin
Size
49.5 by 41.9 cm
Made by
Igun-Ẹrọnmwọn, the brass casters’ guild
Held by
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkMuseum number 1978.412.309
Image
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via The Met Open Access
Appears in

Where it sits in human time

Made about 470 years ago. On this strip, each step to the right is ten times closer to today.

300,000 years ago10,0003,0001,000100nowA plaque of a king on horseback

Sources for this page

Every number on this page comes from one of these. How we check.

Last reviewed 12 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.

  1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Plaque with equestrian ọ́bà (king) and attendants. Edo peoples, Ìgùn Ẹ́rọ̀nmwọ̀n (brass-casting guild) artists, ca. 1540–70. Collection record 310752, Open Access (CC0). www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/310752Used for: A brass plaque of a king on horseback, 49.5 cm high. Checked 12 November 2026.
  2. Digital Benin (2020–2026), hosted by MARKK Hamburg; principal investigators K. Agbontaen-Eghafona, F. Bodenstein, J. Fine, A. Luther and B. Plankensteiner. Catalogue record for a brass plaque, British Museum Af1898,0115.18, with the museum’s curatorial notes (citing Gunsch, K. (2018). The Benin Plaques: A 16th Century Imperial Monument. London: Routledge) and its provenance events. digitalbenin.org/catalogue/Af1898011518Used for: What the plaques are made of, how they were cast, that they were fixed in pairs to the palace pillars, and the dating to the 16th and 17th centuries. Checked 12 November 2026.