Wood spoon, burnt decoration.
Item number 40 on Jeremy Keenan's item list. Wooden spoon called 'tesukalt' (plural 'tisukalin') in Tamahaq. Keenan acquired this object from Sidi Mohammed of the Kel Hirafok people. Price paid: 30 dinar (for five spoons). Keenan refers to fig 191 in Johannes Nicolaisen's 'Ecology and culture of the pastoral Tuareg: with particular reference to the Tuareg of Ahaggar and Ayr' (Nicolaisen, 1963, p 249, fig 191). For the four other spoons, see also 1971.1035, 1971.1036, 1971.1038 and 1971.1039. This type of spoon is cut by blacksmiths ('inadan') from the wood of the 'taburak' tree (Balanites aegyptiaca) (Nicolaisen, 1963, p 249).