Die Metallanalyse der Reliefplatten aus Benin im Ethnologischen Museum in Berlin.

From the Ethnological Museum of Berlin I98 relief plates have been analyzed by atomic absorption spectroscopy. It has been found, that they have been made from brass, which is in its composition entirely different from the brass which had been used for commemorative heads, but identical in their composition with that of Udo heads. The characteristic feature of the brass of the relief plates is an elevated amount of lead, while commemorative heads normally are relatively poor in lead. Further. it became obvious that relief plates with animals and Europeans usually are poorer in zinc and lead than most of the relief plates with Africans. The supposition of Sydow (1932) that flat plates are earlier than those plates with a marked relief is supported, since an increase of zinc is a sign for a later production. A considerable number of relief plates could be found which have an identical composition, due to a joint production from one batch of brass. This leads to a determination of the sequence of brass cargos brought from Europe to Benin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]