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Necklace with pendant (waqari or wakari?)
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Ornate filigree jewelry was historically made in Ethiopia for royals and nobility by specialized silversmiths trained through long apprenticeships. This elaborate pendant necklace ( waqari) probably made and worn in the Muslim city of Harar. Muslim women wore such massive jewelry, which holds aesthetic links to nearby Yemen. Its half-moon pendant is a protective crescent shape and its upper filigreed capsule is an amulet. The crescent symbol has existed as a talismanic form in Ethiopia since the Aksumite Empire (1–700s CE).
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineNecklace with pendant (waqari or wakari?), likely early to mid-1900s. East Africa, probably Harar, Ethiopia, unknown silversmith. Silver alloy, glass. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Raymond A. Silverman, 2025.151
