Amazigh Jewelry - Identity of the Berber Peoples - Granada - Until 17-1-2025

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Andalusian Public Foundation The Andalusian legacy
Corral del Carbón Building
Calle Mariana Pineda
E-18009 – Granada


Amazigh Jewelry - Identity of the Berber Peoples

Until 17th January 2025

Jewelry is a deeply symbolic element of the Amazigh peoples - traditionally called Berbers. They have lived since ancient times in North Africa, between the oasis of Siwa in Egypt to the east and the Atlantic Ocean and the Canary Islands to the east, and from the Mediterranean coast in the north to the southern area of ​​the Sahara Desert and the Niger River basin in the south.

They are peoples who have maintained numerous contacts with the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula throughout history. These contacts intensified in a very special way during the Andalusian period. In Granada, the Amazigh component was especially important during the 11th century, when a Berber dynasty from present-day Algeria, the Zirids, ruled the Taifa kingdom of Granada and decided to move the capital from Madinat Ilbira to Granada. At that time, they turned it into a “madina”, equipping it with numerous structures that have conditioned the current configuration of the city.

This jewellery, worn mainly by women, provides a wealth of information about the Amazigh peoples. The variety of techniques (filigree, enamelling, engraving, casting, nielloing, etc.) and materials (mainly silver, but also coral, precious stones, coins, glass or plastic beads, leather, etc.) explains their long history and geography, in contact with other Mediterranean and sub-Saharan African peoples. It also provides information about their beliefs, as it is jewellery that is endowed with important apotropaic qualities: these jewels are often used to attract good and repel evil. It also provides information about their economy, as it was a way of investing savings, which could always be sold if the times demanded it. And about their habits, as the practical utility of these jewels, used to fasten their cloaks, in a context in which they did not use buttons, zippers or other clasps, is undeniable. Similarly, they present the same type of decoration as the rest of Berber artistic manifestations: carpets, architecture... and even the tattoos on their own bodies.

The exhibition displays around 200 pieces from the collection that the Spanish diplomat Jorge Dezcallar de Mazarredo has gathered over many years and many trips. It shows the great variety of Amazigh jewellery, represented in jewellery from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, the whole of Morocco, and even from areas of other Tuareg-populated countries such as Mauritania. Thus, diadems, headbands, pendants, earrings, necklaces, pectorals, brooches, amulets, bracelets… are on display, which, in addition to their undeniable beauty - despite the simplicity of some of their materials - offer a wealth of information about these neighbouring peoples.

Along with all these jewels, nine paintings by the painter Jesús Conde Ayala are also on display, oil paintings on metal inspired by the pieces that make up this collection. In turn, the exhibition is complemented by a magnificent Berber tapestry loaned by the Secret Berbère Gallery, recently installed in our city.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 348-page catalogue, in which some of the greatest specialists on the subject have collaborated, such as the professor from the University of Alcalá, Helena de Felipe, the professor from the University of Granada, Bilal Sarr or the professor from the University of Boston, Cynthia Becker, who carry out different studies on the Amazigh world that give way to the detailed presentation of their collection by the Spanish Ambassador Jorge Dezcallar de Mazarredo.

Opening hours: Monday to Friday. From 9 a.m. to – 3 pm.

Admission: Check website

https://www.legadoandalusi.es/project/joyeria-amazig/