Hide anklet comprising three iron pellet bells

Collection type: Object
Description: Hide anklet comprising three iron pellet bells
Geographical reference: Kenya
Africa > Eastern Africa > Kenya; East of Mount Elgon
Cultural groups: Tiati; Marakwet
Person: Maker Kitonghin; Field collector Jean Brown Sassoon; PRM source Jean Brown Sassoon
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1978
Date collected: By 1978
Acquisition information: Purchased: 1978
Materials and processes: Material Iron Metal, Material Animal Hide Skin, Process Forged (Metal)
Dimensions: Length: max 125 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1978.20.354 Other numbers: MH33
Research and responses: Kitonghin may be a generic name for Chebleng (Marakwet) blacksmiths rather than a specific person's name. For further information on the production and use of bells in Kenya see: Jean Brown 'Traditional Metalworking in Kenya', Oxbow Monograph 44 / Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 38 (1995), p.102. Worth noting that the original number is not, like the majority of the 1978.20 collection, prefixed by Jean Brown's initials but by someone else's - perhaps those of an assistant [OD 14/2/2001].
Associated publications: Referred to in note 61 on page 412 of African Dream Machines: Style, Identity and Meaning of African Headrests, by Anitra Nettleton (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2007). [JC 7 8 2008]

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