Crescent-Moon Necklace

Created from hammered and cut sheet metal with a series of attached bells, the design and techniques employed on this necklace highlight the interconnections between the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia, and East Africa. Conveying ideas of religious devotion, the crescent moon is a ubiquitous symbol in silver jewelry throughout the Islamic world. Similarly, the delicate hammered beading used to outline the shape and create floral embellishments was a common motif employed by artists across the Indian Ocean. Red glass, beads, and gemstones were inset into necklaces in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula for the protective properties associated with the color. These continuities demonstrate how difficult it is to track styles to a single region, because the designs, objects, and artists were circulating over such broad territories. This created an incredibly fertile artistic environment in which artists continually built upon existing motifs and models from one generation to the next. Thus, while this object was acquired in Lamu, Kenya, it speaks to deep histories of trade and connectivity between port cities across the Indian Ocean.