Rare photo of Yoruba Ceremonial ring.

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Yoruba Ceremonial ring. Circa: 15th-19th century.

This ring, cast by the lost-wax process and weighing nearly eight pounds, is embellished with images in relief. Most prominent is a human figure dressed in full regalia and with opposed crescent-form scarification on the forehead. Three nude human bodies, bound at the elbows and lying on their stomachs, are depicted with their severed and rope-gagged heads turned in opposition to the bodies. A bird modeled in full relief pecks at the neck of the body placed directly opposite the major figure. On the outer side of the ring (but not visible in the photograph) are a tortoise and a pair of looped pins joined by a cord. This imagery is repeated with variations on the other rings in the corpus of 10 known examples.

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The figures can be identified and interpreted by reference to Yoruba oral traditions, religious beliefs and kingship rituals. The decapitated bodies are sacrificial victims. In the distant past, the Yoruba practiced human sacrifice on occasions of great importance to the entire community such as festivals honoring Ogun, the god of iron, or rites connected with the crowning of a new king.

The victims were gagged to prevent them from cursing the priests who executed them. The bird is a vulture, which in Yoruba cosmology is a messenger of the gods charged with carrying sacrifices to them. Thus the presence of vultures on the ring indicates that the sacrifice was acceptable to the god.

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