traditionAmazigh marks
ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ · Tamazight
Chin, forehead, hands and ankles, in lines and diamonds
| Where it goes | face, chin, hands, arms, legs |
|---|---|
| Stopped by | religious discouragement and urbanisation |
| Notes | Marks read as protective and as a statement of group; the meanings were rarely written down by the women who wore them. |
| Ink | Soot and water |
| Years between | 1980–2026 (46) |
about 1,000 BCE – 1,980 · Largely ended in the twentieth century under religious discouragement
31.5000, -6.5000 · OpenStreetMap
What it is
North Africa: women's chin, forehead and hand marks, in a geometric vocabulary shared with weaving and pottery.
The long version
The motifs are the same motifs that appear on textiles and on painted pottery, which is the pattern seen in the Philippines too: the tattoo is not a separate art but the same design language put on a person.
Inference — a great deal of what is published about the meanings of these marks is collected from outside and late. This record says what the marks look like and where they go, and holds off on what each one meant.
Named here by
- Deq The neighbouring tradition across North Africa.
Where each claim comes from
| Field | Tier | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| default | tradition | ||
| text_th | inference | written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated |
Sources
- Berbers — Wikipedia (en)
cited Cited — a named source, linked · harvested Harvested — fetched from an open dataset, with its licence · tradition Tradition — general knowledge of the tradition, hedged · inference Inference — this project's own reasoning from the above · field Field — someone stood there