Libyan Tuareg Jewellery & Traditional Industries

Jewellery Stall at Janzur Festival

Tools of the Tuareg Blacksmith

Tuareg Multi Tool

Who did really invent the Swiss knife?

Tuareg Locks

Antique Tuareg lock & Key. Private collection of Temehu.com. Dim. (12 cm x 8 cm).

The above lock is a genuine piece of Tuareg metal-work. Tuareg women use locks to close their jewellery bags, which are rectangular, cast iron boxes decorated with layers of  silver, tin, copper, leather and brass. The lock mechanism is hidden in the metal casing and cannot be accessed from the top nor from any other side. Different springs  are released when the key, assrou, or tinast in other Berber languages, presses them together. Each lock can only be opened using the specially designed key. The key is placed in the hole near the end, then pulled towards the other end, where the springs click open and the actual lock, with the pin comes off. It can be closed simply by pushing it back in position. There is no way of hacking this kind of lock and therefore is fully secure. The design is very ancient and similar locks are found in Chinese literature. 

The modern Tuareg lock.

The Tuareg Cross

Vintage (1950s) Tuareg cross-necklace. Private collection of Temehu.com.

This genuine and vintage Tuareg Cross Necklace is made of silver Berber crosses and vintage coloured glass beads. The Crosses are normally worn on their own and rarely found in a necklace like this one, except in some modern variants. The symbolism of the cross is almost identical to the Assrou n Swoul (described above) and carries the same geometrical elements. The back of the crosses are normally engraved with Tuareg tifinagh (script), representing the name of the owner, to afford protection to the wearer. They are often made of silver, which is more valued than gold in Tuareg society, although gold commercial variants can be found in modern shops.

The Tuareg Cross.

This Tuareg necklace represents the "hand".