2 Asante Brass Ring Pendants Ghana Ericson Collection

The Asante/Ashanti Empire, known for its rich history of creating intricate jewelry, played a significant role in shaping the craft production and use of jewelry in the region. The empire, founded by the Akan people who migrated from the Sahel and Sahara, had access to gold and interacted with Islamic artists and traders. The Ashanti Empire placed great importance on gold jewelry, attributing supernatural abilities and spiritual power to it. They believed that gold objects could protect the empire's power and ensure the safe spiritual travels of the deceased. This belief in the power of gold contrasted with some other societies that considered gold to be a negative force, leading them to make jewelry from silver instead. As the Ashanti Empire expanded and conquered other peoples, they would demand tribute, which sometimes introduced new methods of working with metal to the empire. These methods included lost-wax casting and special hammering techniques. Lost-wax casting, originally fro