Vintage Maasai Shields ?

[drac2k]

I picked these up a couple of weeks ago and I'm pretty sure (but not positive), that they are vintage Maasai shields. One has traces of decorated pigment on it, and both are constructed in the Maasai fashion. I was wondering how old these shields are and if the undecorated shield could have been constructed by a neighboring tribe, other than the Maasai using similar techniques?

[Araña_del_Sol]

Hi drac2k,

These shields could most definitely be from the Maasai people, here is a vintage photo of a warrior and a few shields from the British Museum

Maasai warrior: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/EA_Af-B14-2
Shield 1: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1904-233
Shield 2: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1944-05-5
Shield 3: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1936-0104-4

That being said, much of the material culture commonly attributed to the Maasai is also found among several neighboring people groups in Kenya and Tanzania including the Samburu, Kikuyu, Nyamwezi, Arusha, etc. Thus, either the undecorated and/or the decorated shield could come from a neighboring ethnic group.

- ADS

[Tim Simmons]

They could be from many other people of the region of East Africa. The Maasai warrior of the early 20th century carried much larger shield.

[drac2k]

Very interesting; how large were the earlier shields? My shields seem to be consistent in size with the examples provided by Arana_del_Sol; 40"x27" & 37"x29". I should have provided the dimensions earlier.
Thanks to all for the insightful comments.

[Kmaddock]

I have in the back of my mind a memory of reading that older Massai Shields were big enough to cover an entire person when crouched down behind them.
Regardless both shields are lovely items.
Well done
Ken

[Peter B.]

In this thread are also some pictures of Maasai shields in different sizes:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27227

[drac2k]

Great information guys; I did indeed see shields of all sizes and also unadorned, unpainted ones.

[Sajen]

Here you can see a lot more: *******************************gallery?african-shields&ba-page=4

[drac2k]

Great site, thanks Sajen.