Ethiopian shield

[Flavio]

Ah, here come back my first love!! AFRICA!!! :D Pics from seller a nice ethiopian shield, diameter 50 cm. Comments are welcome.

[CharlesS]

Gorgeeeeez piece! Which Ethiopian ethnic group does this come from??

[Flavio]

Thank you Charles, unfortunatly i can't be more precise, but hope someone here will do :)

[Lew]

Flavio

Nice to see you went back to your first love ;) A lovely shield beautiful patina.


Lew

[Flavio]

Thank you Lew,

i hope to have this one very soon!!!

[Tim Simmons]

Just the ticket :cool: .

[Tim Simmons]

On this marvelous shield we can see that the designs have clearly been applied freehand with no use of mechanical rotation or spinning. Also it looks like the hand tools has not included rollers.

[Flavio]

Thank you Tim :)

[Luc LEFEBVRE]

Very nice design of the patterns on this this shield.
Nice one Flavio.
Luc

[Flavio]

Thanks a lot Luc :)

[katana]

What a fantastic shield.....it just oozes quality

[roanoa]

My best guess is that the shield is AFAR/DANAKIL from the ISSA tribe. So you are most likely narrowing down its origin to the former French Somalia. Probably Gibuti. Very nice piece.

[Flavio]

Thank you very much Roa :) So maybe is better to display this shield more with a kaskara than with a gurade or a shotel? Regards

Flavio

[Titus Pullo]

You have a nice piece there! Gorgeous!

[Flavio]

Ave Titus! Thank you very much :)

[roanoa]

Flavio, I would say that the shield should be displayed with a GILE. I do not believe Kaskaras were used that far South along the Red Sea coast.

[roanoa]

Flavio. I found this picture in the AFRICAN SHIELDS by ZIRNGIBL. Guess it will help. Ciao, Roano

[Tim Simmons]

I was just going to add that a spear is most likely carried. I also think if you had one of those German light cavalry swords made for Abyssinia would be okay to put with it.

[Flavio]

Ciao Roano :) , thank you very much. The shield that you show is very similar, thanks a lot.

Tim, maybe your somali shield on swap forum is better with a kaskara? :)

[roanoa]

Hi Tim. I do not agree with your suggestion. All the pictures I have seen of Afar/Danakil warriors show them carrying (aside from rifles...) shield, spear and gile. No swords. Unless one considers the gile a short sword. Cheers, RON

[Tim Simmons]

You are quite right about the Gile. I am not brave enough to say this form of shield would not have been used over a wide area including Abyssinian warriors for whom many swords were made. A big Gile or an Abyssinian Shotel or trade sword all would look fabulous with the shield. :cool:

[roanoa]

Hi Tim. I agree. The shield may have found its way into the hands of an "abyssinian" warrior. One thing about the Afar/Danakil though: they are SO TRADITIONAL that I doubt they would be using anything but their gile. I have seen recent pictures of these tribesmen carrying AK47 AND the gile. And, by the way, taking a closer look at the picture of the Issa warrior that I submitted, I noticed that he is in fact wearing a gile. You can see it with the handle sitting on the guy's lap and the scabbard's tip brass decoration pointing upward. Cool.

[Flavio]

Hello Roano, could you post a higher resolution picture of the issa warrior? Thank you :)

[roanoa]

Hi Flavio. I am afraid this is the highest I can go. However, if you so wish,
e-mail me at ROANOA@SHAW.CA and I'll send it to you. It's a BIG file.... Roano

[Flavio]

Hello Roano, you have an email. :)

[Flavio]

Ciao Roano, have you received my mails? Regards

Flavio