New Getty Conservation Institute images of restoration efforts at Royal Palaces of Abomey

Abomey, located in the Republic of Benin along the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, was the capital of the kingdom of Dahomey that ruled the Fon people from the mid-17th to late 19th century. The kingdom at one time occupied a region from the borders of the Asante kingdom (in present day Ghana) to the territory controlled by the Yoruba city states (in present day Nigeria).  The Royal Palaces of Abomey are a testament to the power and sophistication of the Dahomey kingdom.  In the mid-1990′s The Getty Conservation Institute and the West African Republic of Benin’s Department of Cultural Patrimony worked together to conserve fifty seriously damaged bas-relief panels that once adorned the Salle des Bijoux (Hall of Jewels) at the Royal Palaces of Abomey. The Getty Conservation Institute has generously shared their documentation from this project and these images are now available for researchers and students to view in JSTOR’s African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes collection.  JSTOR has many articles that discuss the Dahomey kings but here are two gems.  The first is a letter to the Royal Geographical Society of London describing a meeting between a traveler and the Dahomey king in 1845; the second is an article by the notable scholar Dr. Suzanne P. Blier in the journal RES, critically examining Melville J. Herskovits’ conclusions and research in his well known study Dahomey.

Advertisement