Human skull, no mandible, cranium with Qur'anic verse and prayer in Arabic, collected by Major Robert Baden-Powell, British Expedition, 1895-6, Ashanti, Ghana, 1801-1900

The Arabic inscriptions written across this skull blend Chapter 69 of the Qur'an with an inscribed personal prayer to Prophet Mohammed. Museum documentation mentions the term “Mugrabi land” which most likely refers to the Maghreb region, an Islamic majority region in North West Africa. It could be that the skull was transported from North Africa to the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) reaching the Asante region by in the late 1900s. An Islamic presence has existed in the Gold Coast since the 1500s, and trading of religious items such as prayers in various forms was common. We do not know whom the skull originally belonged to.

It and another similarly inscribed skull (A666427) were taken by Major Robert Baden Powell during the British Expedition to the Asante region between 1895-6 which resulted in the exiling of the Asante King, Prempeh I, and around fifty other Asante captives. In his book about the Expedition, published in 1900, Baden-Powell described the journey to the Asante homeland located in Kumasi, and how he came across a parade-ground there with many skulls within it. This may have been where this particular skull was found. In 1913 Baden-Powell donated the skulls to the newly opened Wellcome Historical Medical Museum owned by Sir Henry Wellcome, where they went on display within a day.