Hello!
Im not sure of the origins of this necklace. Berber, North African, Turkish, or? There is a mark on one of the horseshoe amulets and some coins. If anyone has any ideas? AND is the dating is also a question…
2 Likes
Follows a fairly lengthy discussion on facebook about the mark with seems to be Tripoli pre 1969:
Etsy had identical horseshoes for sale at $25 each and says they are Libyan tribal manufacture.
The coins are too worn to see any images on them.
All reminds me there is a line in the Marines anthem “The Star Spangled banner” :“…From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land, and sea;”
Libyan white slavers had much to do with the Americans forming a navy before they formed a country. Not only did the Colonists have to deal with the British, whose colony they theoretically were, stopping their merchant ships and “press ganging” their sailors if any of them were English and a lot were back then, but the Berbers were slavers who preyed on the American merchant vessels.
Only they wanted whites and while they relied on the coastal villages of Cornwall and Dorset to provide them with females for the Arab market, they could always use fit men for work and the American ships provided that.
But all this was 200 years before your tribal necklace was assembled. In 1969 Muammar Gaddafi became the ruler of Libya, after leading a bloodless military coup that overthrew King Idris I.
At 27 years old, he launched the Libyan Revolution as part of a group of army officers, becoming the leader of the newly established Libyan Arab Republic.
That coup was the beginning of decades of volatile relations, with the US culminating in the 1986 bombing of Tripoli.
Much of the US air bombing was launched from Upper Heyford, Oxon next door to a farm my family had in Oxfordshire. The roar of B52 heavy bombers taking off fully loaded from the base went on for an entire 24hr. day. I had just bought in a new rather expensive horse from Germany and was worried the racket would disturb her. It sure disturbed us. Anyway the mare seemed to tolerate it very well.
A couple of weeks later I got a call from the seller to see how things were and I told him about the Libyan bombing and the 120 decibel roar his mare had had to put up with.
" Oh she’d like that" he chuckled. “Make her feel at home”. Apparently her home paddock where she was born in south-western Germany also then has a US air base!
CRWW
2 Likes
What was intriguing me about the hallmark on the horseshoes was not that they originated in Tripoli but the extent to which the ships illustrated inside the horseshoe was an accurate depiction of the Barbary pirates who bedevilled the Americas, got a line in the Marine’s signal hymn and triggered the early American colonists to build their own navy.
Here’s a useful depiction of the type of ship they used and it is indeed true to the hallmark image with raked bow and stern and square rigged.
BARBARY CORSAIR SHIPS: SQUARE-RIGGED VESSELS – PART 1 – Corsairs & Captives.
The key advantage the pirates had over the much larger first to third raters built by both the American and the British navies was an ability to operate in much shallower water to manoeuvre in much more constrained environments and to threaten to inflict damage.
The end result was Lloyds, then as now a major marine insurer refused to cover for perils in certain waters severely restricting the ability of the American merchant fleet to operate.
I was thinking that that was exactly the same tactics used by the Iranians today in the Persian Gulf. It’s the threat of damage rather than actual damage that paralyses commercial activity and gives the maritime guerrilla warrior the advantage over a navy with a hundred times the fire power.
Plus ca change…
CRWW
2 Likes
Thank you. That is a great story and great information! Much appreciated and Ive attached more pictures of the coins. Regards.
1 Like
Thank you that’s very helpful. Ive attached some new coin pictures now. Regards.
2 Likes