Benin bronzes made from metal mined in west Germany, study finds

Benin bronzes on display at the British Museum. Hundreds of Benin bronzes were seized by British forces in 1897. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Scientists have discovered that some of the Benin bronzes were made with metal mined thousands of miles away in the German Rhineland.

The Edo people in the Kingdom of Benin, modern Nigeria, created their extraordinary sculptures with melted down brass manilla bracelets, the grim currency of the transatlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries.