Yemen Silver & Carnelian Wedding Headdress (Ma’saba)

This silver alloy headdress set with six large carnelian (orange agate) cabochons, was worn in Juba in the Marib Governorate, and also in southern Saudi Arabia, as part of the traditional wedding attire of a local Bedouin woman. It was worn on the  top of the head over a traditional cloth head covering and across the forehead.

It comprises a braided silver wire substrate band over which at the front are folded five main silver plaques each set with a flat carnelian in a high box setting, and four narrower plaques. The silver plaques are further decorated with silver granulation, filigree and applique work. A fringe of pendant dangles of chains and solid-cast terminals hangs down from the front of the headdress.

At the back are five further silver plaques, the middle one of which is set with an oval carnelian cabochon.

A similar headdress is illustrated in Ransom (2014, p. 80).

Ransom (2014, p. 83) reports how Jewish silversmiths would visit the region annually and stay for several weeks while they fulfilled orders.

The carnelian almost certainly is untreated and from Cambay in Gujarat, India. Carnelian has been traded from Gujarat to the Middle East and Africa for thousands of years.

The headdress is missing one or several dangles from the fringe at the front but otherwise is in fine condition. The carnelian stones used in this piece are unlikely to have been heat treated. Most carnelians used in Yemen and Saudi Arabia were imported from Cambay (Khambat) in Gujarat, India, where heat treating was not used.