Photos

Comments

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  Chantal February 11, 2013 at 10:32pm

  Magnificent like  all your other pics. Jose have you found a treasure trove (in an attic? or an old galleon? or a cellar?). What is the pimento shape black element on the left? Some weird amulet? is it in wood?
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  Harald February 12, 2013 at 1:52pm

  Beautiful set!
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  Alaa eddine SAGID February 12, 2013 at 11:25pm

  @Chantal

  Probably a gazelle horn!!!
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  Chantal February 12, 2013 at 11:26pm

  so small?
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  Alaa eddine SAGID February 13, 2013 at 1:09am

  depends on age and specy
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  ait ouakli February 13, 2013 at 6:01am

  Gazelle horn , only the etremity is good for this kind of work,

  it depends of age as mentionned, 5 until 10 cm at the end are full inside ( stabile ) the rest is empty , the same as cow horn ( brakes easy )
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  Jose M. Pery February 13, 2013 at 8:16am

  I believe you are right and it is the tip end of a horn. What I do not know if together with its symbolical meaning as an amulet it had some other practical use such as, for example, a khol applicator or something of the like.

  Else, any ideas about the origin of the set. I think it comes probably from Northern Morocco but I have some doubts that it may also come from a little bit farther South (e.g: Aït Haddidou ...)
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  Jose M. Pery February 13, 2013 at 11:51am

  Thanks a lot, Waqar and all for your great comments.
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  Harald February 13, 2013 at 2:31pm

  Interesting to read about the horns in Central Asia. In Africa real horns are used a lot on statues and sometimes as a talisman in necklaces. 

  I have a drawing (made in early nineteen fifties) of a necklace from Foum Tatahouine (Tunesia) with gazelle horns and kauri shells. Both are fertility amulets, the horns for begetting many sons. 

  A few of my small African statues (Songey) have horns on the head. In this case horn gives power like teeth and whiskers of mighty animals.

  In the items like jewelry or statues these horns have nothing to do with the ancesters. Dik dik horns are used in thes items.They are are very small (3 to 5 cm.)

  
  
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  Alaa eddine SAGID February 13, 2013 at 7:05pm

  gazelle horns would be too small to contain anything, and as AIT said only the sharp tip would be used since the base is hollow.

  In morocco at least gazelle horn is considered as a powerful talisman and often used in magic affairs related to expelling negativ powers....such as evil eyes!

  @Tribal

  Ancestors beliefs are not a serious affair in North Africa, since this region was very early in Contact with clearly organised  mediterranean religious systems and eventually with near eastern monotheisms, which do not emphasize on this subject!

  In the adornment world there are clearly three levels of religious (or at least beliefs) representation:

  -The official: Islam with quran verses, prophet's names.....

  -The heritage: Mainly Jewish  which is somehow tolerated by the official religion but only after being given an islamic "varnish" such as animals cited in old testament

  -The unconscious: Prebiblical beliefs in antique mediterranean goddesess such as tanit or even farther afield from the very old african saharan and sahelian heritage. Unrecognized as such by the smiths or the wearers, but still mantained in the smithing tradition mainly in the form's conservation.

  North african were not a shamanic people and even in very early times they were connected to mediterranenan sophisticated religious pantheons to which they clearly indentified with their own gods; Tanit is clearly the berber alter ego of Astarté, Ishtar, Isis, aphrodite, Venus......

  You have to go back really really old to the time before the phraoahs to find some chamanic rituals