**Originally Listed At $500**

West Africa, Mali, Tellem culture, ca. 11th to 15th century CE. A pair of hand-made quartz crystal ear plugs or labrets, shaped and polished to near perfect cylinders. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website: "What little is known of Tellem society is based on the contents of remote chambers of Bandiagara necropoli, or collective burial sites. Tellem residents of villages located at the foot of the high cliff in the Seno plain went to great lengths to hoist up and deposit their dead for safeguarding within its caves, along with precious possessions and agricultural reserves. Among the items of adornment recovered are cylindrical quartz plugs worn in the lip, nose, and ears and beads made of glass, quartz, and carnelian. Other intimate possessions that accompanied their owners into the afterlife include headrests and stools." Size: 2" L x 0.3" W (5.1 cm x 0.8 cm)

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-German Collection

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#159658

Stable striations and abrasions to both, and minor surface nicks. Intact. Old inventory labels written on surface of both.