A digital archive showcasing the extensive collection of jewellery and adornment images shared on the former Ethnic Jewels Ning site over the years. These images have significantly enriched discussions on cultural adornment and its global dispersion.
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Ayis, thank you for posting this. These are very beautiful and rare.
Wonderful pic, what an unusual veil! Interesting, Tanit is also supposed to be represented in the shapes of ida ou nadif jewelry.
The type of fibula that you are referring to is Celtic in origin, coming from Ireland and Scotland (though they probably came from the Viking areas as well). You can find many fine ancient examples in gold. This Celtic style was made popular by Queen Victoria who had a passion for Scotland and all things Scottish, thus these brooches became very popular, especially in Northern Europe at this time. I believe that this style of Celtic "fibula" is actually a penannular brooch.
many thanx to all of you for your input.
@Patty: you are right, Tanit though a very ancient symbol has been surviving in jewellery across north africa, especially in the the anti atlas and in Ghadames oases in Libya where a big similar pendant has been used as a major ornament
@Hillary: i second you for the celtic or at least for a germanic (wisigoth) origin for the north african pennanular fibula or as it is called the "omega" shaped fibula. many early schoolars thought that the berber fibulas were a direct legacy of the roman and greeks (mediterranean in general) but later researches have prooven that the omega shaped fibulas have never been used by the romans, on the other hand they were a great feature of the preislamic-conquest wisigotic spain.
We know for sure that the main conquerers of spain were of berber descend and that they greatly used wisigothic technique and designs in developping andalusian material culture (as did the ottoman with the byzantine, greek and armenian skills when they conquered constantinople/Istanbul)
Eventually when they were expelled from spain they returned to north africa settling with their relatives following the tribal links, importing with them the use of fibulas....that is why not only the atlas, and rural berbers adopted fibulas but also the urban populations of north africa such as highly sophisticated FEZ and ALGIERS...inhabited by andalucian refugees.
North african eventually developped the huge array of shapes and techniques (triangles, circles, filgree, worm hole....) but maintained the unique fastening technique of the pennanular fibula
Marlene of ethic-silver has a circular brooch for sale, from Algeria. I cannot see the detail of this brooch, so I don't know if it is relevant, just thought I would add this information if it should proved related. http://www.ethnic-silver.com/berber/images/ber4103.jpg
Should anyone possess a photo or detail of similar anthropomorphic pendants representing Tanith, I would be most grateful if they would post photos of them.
Ida ou nadif pendants are supposed to represent tanith. There are many examples of them on the site via a site search. I don't know if this is what you want, or you only want Tunisian examples.
https://ethnicjewels.ning.com/photo/ida-ou-nadif-head-ornament Here is a pic of a temporal which is supposed to represent Tanith
Thanks Patricia. You`re right - I was being lazy. I`m not just after Tunisian examples though. Sadly I can`t get the link to work.
great request, I did do some anthropomorphic goddess pendant gathering on Sunday!!
Shall post somepics for you
SX
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