Figured elephant tusks were placed on royal altars within the palace complex.  (See photomural to your left.)  These tusks, naturally hollow at their widest end, were placed over wooden spikes in openings at the top of brass heads honoring past kings.  Like copper alloys, such as brass and bronze, ivory was a substance reserved for the king.

On the front, or convex side of this tusk, is a prominent figure of a king (Oba) being held on either side by a court official.  Directly above the king is a Portuguese soldier, and above the soldier is another king whose upwardly curved legs end in mudfish, a reference to the sea god Olokun.  The entire surface of the tusk is filled with images of court officials, Portuguese soldiers (once powerful allies), and crocodiles, leopards, mudfish and other animals.

The charred surface, particularly at the top of this tusk, may have resulted from fire damage during the 1897 British military expedition to Benin City.