cake; tarfat

Date and onion cake.

Item number 55 on Jeremy Keenan's item list. One of two date and onion cakes ('tarfat' in Tamahaq) bought at the market in Tamanrasset for 5 dinar. Keenan refers to fig 190 in Johannes Nicolaisen's 'Ecology and culture of the pastoral Tuareg, with particular reference to the Tuareg of Ahaggar and Ayr' (Nicolaisen, 1963, p 249, fig 190). According to Nicolaisen, such cakes were made in Tidikelt but sold in Tamanrasset by Arab merchants. They are pounded in the mortar, or are crushed between two stones before cooking (Nicolaisen, 1963, p 249). See also 1971.1057.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
1971.1056
PLACE
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 101 mm
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
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