APOTROPICAL OBJECT

Material: Red coral
Origin: Ionian Coast, Sicily, prior to 1910
Measurements: 8 cm long x 4 cm wide x 20 cm high

A tiny decorative piece consisting of an Ethiopian brazier and a fragment of red coral from the Ionian Sea. The chryselephantine receptacle predates the Italian invasion of Eritrea (1895) and is engraved with low-relief punch incisions and painted with a perimeter border. We assume it was used in the Alexandrian liturgical rites of the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church.

The coral tentacle comes from the Ionian coast of Sicily and predates 1910. Its intense orange-red coloration, currently impossible, stands out as a bioindicator of environmental quality resulting from the abundance of plankton and its pristine waters.