3042 – African Bone / Ivory Bracelet

Physical description:

A large bracelet, probably made from a section of an elephant's tusk, or perhaps a large bone. A vertical crack has been bound with thin red cord.

Size:

8.5 cm diameter, 9 cm long

Information:

Bone bracelets in some traditions of African magic were thought to be a means of contacting the dead.

Found in a box of uncatalogued items with two labels in Williamson's hand: 'Witch-doctor. Mau-Mau. Sundry Items.' The other label reads: 'Witch-Doctor. Mau-Mau Relics'.

Patina is creamy, with some surface marking around rim.

There is a museum id. no. (757) written in white inside the bracelet, peerhaps suggesting that Cecil Williamson acquired it from another museum.

Resource:

Object

Materials:

Bone, thread

Bone bracelets in some traditions of African magic were thought to be a means of contacting the dead.

Found in a box of uncatalogued items with two labels in Williamson's hand: 'Witch-doctor. Mau-Mau. Sundry Items.' The other label reads: 'Witch-Doctor. Mau-Mau Relics'.

Patina is creamy, with some surface marking around rim.

There is a museum id. no. (757) written in white inside the bracelet, peerhaps suggesting that Cecil Williamson acquired it from another museum.