Tuareg Cross – IN GALL – NigerTuareg Cross – IN GALL – Niger

1960′-1970′. Silver and glass, gr 16,0 (0.56 oz) – cm. 6,8 x 4,0 (2.67” x 1.57”). Koranic inscriptions. Signed piece. The Tuareg people inhabit a large area, covering almost all the middle and western Sahara and the north-central Sahel. They are probably descended from the ancient Libyan people of the kingdom of the Garamantes, described by Herodotus. Tuareg are mostly nomads. For over two millennia, the Tuareg operated the trans-Saharan caravan trade connecting the great cities on the southern edge of the Sahara via five desert trade routes to the northern coast of Africa (Mediterranean). The Tuareg people, is divided into 21 tribes (kel), and each tribe has a relevant territory and its own cross. The Tuareg crosses are worn by men or women alike: they have magical significance (value protection). The Tuareg live in one of the most inhospitable areas of the planet: their whole existence, difficult and precarious, is dominated by an overriding concern to protect and defend themselves from supernatural forces that inhabit the hostile environment – the “Jinn” (evil spirits, from the terrible Ghul, to Ifrit, no less cruel in tending traps to travelers) – and gain the protection of beneficial genes.