Head Ornament

Arts of Africa

After 1960

Tekna
Laayoune, Western Sahara
Northern Africa and the Sahel

In contrast with the silver head ornaments of the Imazighen peoples of Algeria and Morocco on display nearby, those of the Tekna and other Hassaniya-speaking peoples are made of finely knotted and twisted horsehair or synthetic hair that is decorated with beads in a variety of materials—ebony, silver, coral, glass, and shell— and semiprecious stones. Such ornaments blend into the hairlike wigs of those who wear them.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Tekna
Title: Head Ornament
Place: Morocco (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1960–1999
Medium: Nylon and polypropylene hair, amber, coral, shell, silver, carnelian, and glass beads
Dimensions: 62.3 × 26.7 × 19.1 cm (24 1/2 × 10 1/2 × 7 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Alsdorf Foundation - James and Marilynn Alsdorf Acquisition Fund
Reference Number: 2009.574

Kathleen Bickford Berzock, editor. 2019. Caravans of Gold: Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa. Exh. cat. Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University with Princeton University Press, pg. 99 (ill).

Evanston, Ill., Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa, Jan. 26–July 21, 2019, cat. pg. 35, fig. 1.14; traveled to Toronto, the Aga Khan Museum, Sept. 21, 2019–Feb. 23, 2020; and Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, July 16, 2021-Feb. 27, 2022 (previously Apr. 8–Nov. 29, 2020 but postponed by pandemic).

Unnamed dealer, Tiznit, Morocco, before 2009; sold to Ivo Grammet, Essaouira, Morocco, before 2009 [purchased in Guelmim, Morocco, documentation in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute, 2009.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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