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Anjali, I cannot tell you. Red copper is rather sparse, mostly is was brass and fewer items made in pure copper. Even crosses or bracelets and rings from Sidamo. few copper handcrosses, mostly brass (mixture of copper and nickel). So this maybe were the rarity comes from too expensive and difficult to get to the material. Eritrea has a very high copper deposit but was never commercialised. Only now it goes to China I believe. It is a nice amulet with lots of age and softness to is andlso rather delicately and tastefully engraved. PS Anjali, U am extremely busy with some other important tasks so stilldidntl get around to forward a photo of the newly made beads. But didn.t forget. Gr. Ingrid.
Ingrid, thank you for all of this information. So, perhaps it is brass. My local jeweler might know. I just posted the second one which is my favorite of the two. Please don't worry about photos of the beads or responding to this now. Take your time.
No Anjali, your pendant is copper. The pure thing, no mixture of any kind.
The brass items are yellow of color, they also call it yellow copper, but there is no yellow copper its proper name is than brass.
https://ethnicjewels.ning.com/photo/ethiopian-copper-spiral-pendant?...
According to my seller, who bought this in Ethiopia, it is an Oromo Amulette, see my link
Hi Eva. I thought we might have talked about this once before, but when I searched a few days ago, i couldn't find the example. Thanks so much for bringing this up again. Your piece is really pretty.
thanks, Anjali, I have to admit, it is a bit confusing, I heard guesses it might be Sidamo, then I heard it is Oromo, I read in an online catalogue it is Oromo, and my seller said, he bought it in Addis Ababa......... sometimes several ethnies wear the same type of Thing.... this is my guess and therefore the confusion. You know, as an example in the Sahel area - a Peul (Fulani) wearing a Tuareg cross, so one would think it is Fulani, but it is actually Tuareg.... this can be quite confusing.
Eva, Oromo are a wide spread ethnic people. Like the people in Arussi,Sidamo, Omo area, Wolega etc. are all Oromos, The used to puss on in search of land (like the Vikings) they intermarried the local people and so they cover almost all the low lands. But when saying Sidamo that is the province where they possible are worn. So when they say Oromo that does not place them.
Eva your trader bought it in Addis. That is the place where brokers who go all over the country in search for goods bring it to. Often in consignment of the tourist shop owners.
Anjali, I have never been to Ethiopia. I travelled a lot in Western Africa (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and a bit in Mauritania near the border to Mali and several times in Morocco and Tunisia), but not East Africa, so I am no expert about Ethiopia. I read that there is an Oromo valley, does this not make a place? Anyway, all I can say, is, what the seller (who travels regularly to Ethiopia) told me. And that this Piece was rather expensive in comparison to Tigre hairpins.
Dear Eva, it was me who wrote this piece of history and not @Anjali. There is a Omo Valley from the Omo river.Like I wrote, Oromo is not an area, they are an ethnic group who lives all over Ethiopia, many are islam,others christians, other tree worshipppers. In many books they refer wrongly to as an item being oromo, but that doesn,t tell you which area of Ethiopia. Your lovely pendant is from the Sidamo area. Gr.Ingrid.