Castiglioni Museum

The gold of the pharaohs

Discover the methods of mining and processing gold and the labors and sacrifices made by thousands of anonymous miners for the greatness of their rulers.

Welcome to the Castiglioni Museum

The Castiglioni Museum was born from the donation of thousands of precious artefacts to the City of Varese by the brothers Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni. For sixty years, the Castiglioni twins conducted ethnological and archaeological research and documentation missions mainly in Africa. During this long period, they approached numerous technologically backward ethnic groups. Examples include: - the Paleonegritic populations of North Cameroon: Matakam, Mofou, Kapsiki etc., and the Sombas of the Atakora Mountains of Togo. They stayed with these populations for a long time back in 1959; - the Nilotic populations of the upper White Nile (Mundari, Dinka, Nuer, etc.) and the forest populations (the pygmies of Gabon, the Ewe' and the Fon, settled in the equatorial area of the Gulf of Guinea). During their expeditions, in the deserts, savannahs, forests and mountains of Africa, the Castiglioni twins not only collected and catalogued objects from the material and religious life of the various ethnic groups, but also made precise photo-cinematographic records. These now unrepeatable documents are part of the museum's heritage and allow visitors to 'immerse' themselves in a distant and now vanished world. Their research has been stimulated and guided by the words of a famous African poet and man of culture, former President of Senegal: Leopold Sedar Sehghor, who left this admirable exhortation: 'White men go to the remote villages of my land and document the words of the storytellers, of the old men, of all the repositories of ancient human knowledge, because when they die it will be as if, for you white men, all the libraries will burn'. Words of great emotional power that the Castiglioni made their own and that have always guided them in their study missions.

The story of the Castiglioni brothers

Born in Milan on 18 March 1937, the twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni dedicated themselves to research and discovery from the age of 19. In sixty years of missions, mainly on the African continent, they made important archaeological discoveries and carefully documented the customs and traditions of ethnic groups that had disappeared or were losing their original cultural bases. Below are some of their most important researches. In 1959, they carried out detailed ethnological studies on the Palaeonegritic populations (Mofu, Matakam, Kapsiki) of the Mandara Mountains, in North Cameroon, participating in the census of these ethnic groups. From 1959 to 1969 they researched traditional medicine (ethno-medicine) and the initiation rites of several ethnic groups in the Gulf of Guinea (Bobo Oulé) and the Congo River Basin (Mandja). In 1960 in Equatoria (South Sudan), they retraced part of the itineraries of some Italian explorers (Carlo Piaggia, Giovanni Miani) who had made the Black Continent known to the western world about a century earlier. They stay for three months in the 'kraal' (summary camps) of the Mundari, the ethnic group described by these explorers, noting the immutability of their customs over the last hundred years. They carried out, among other things, a thorough investigation into the hunting methods of this population, which were later compared with the prehistoric methods depicted on the Bergiug graffiti in Libya. From 1960 to 1962, they carried out numerous study missions to the Tuareg of Algeria, Niger, Mali and Tchad, noting that, year after year, these populations modified and lost their original material culture. This is why they acquired, in the Air, a complete tent of this ethnic group, which can now be admired in a room of the museum. During one of these missions, they recovered the remains of a Targhi (singular of Tuareg) caravan that had died of thirst, which was reconstructed in one of the museum rooms. In 1968, they began ethnological studies on the Nilo-Camiti (Southern Nilotic), which were completed in 1988. During these missions, they had local 'hairdressers' perform the elaborate hairstyles characteristic of these ethnic groups. These hairstyles, placed on terracotta busts specially modelled by a Milanese sculptor in accordance with the rules of physical anthropology, are exhibited in the museum room dedicated to these populations. During the same period, they acquired, often through barter, clothing, weapons, objects of daily use from the Nilo-Camites. These objects can be found among the many valuable exhibits in the museum.In 1970, they carried out an ethnographic survey on the Borana, a population in southern Ethiopia, reporting unpublished information on this ethnic group and the management of their water resources. The documentary on this research, which was presented at the 21st International Archaeological Film Festival in Rovereto (4-9 October 2010), ranked second out of a hundred films made by over 20 nations. In 1977, they carried out a 2,500-kilometre expedition across the Sahara of Mali and Niger, travelling through the Azaouak valley and south Teneré, territories that were little known at the time. They found and classified numerous palaeosols and a vast deposit of dinosaur remains. In 1982 they carried out research on prehistoric graffiti from the Bergiug Valley in south-western Libyan Sahara, dating back 10/12,000 years. The casts of the rock engravings were exhibited as part of the XXVI Festival dei due Mondi in Spoleto and are now part of the new museum's holdings. Unique and extraordinary finds. In 1984, they reached, with a caravan of mules, a then little-known ethnic group, the Tid people of the Cormà Mountains in Ethiopia and carried out, among other things, an accurate study of the diet of this population. In 1985, they made a research trip to the emerald mines of the Jebel Sikeit and Jebel Zabarath in Egypt, carrying out accurate film-photographic documentation of the Ptolemaic rock temples and miners' settlements. The CNR's analysis of some emerald fragments recovered on site confirmed that the stones set in the jewellery of Roman matrons came from these mines. During this mission, they also surveyed the quarries of the 'beken' stone, photographing Egyptian representations and graffiti, some of which have disappeared due to archaeological theft.On 12 February 1989, they found the ancient mining town of Berenice Panchrysos, mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia. The discovery was judged by Jean Vercoutter (French Egyptologist, pioneer of archaeological research in Sudan) to be 'one of the great discoveries of archaeology'. From January 1989 to March 1994, they carried out exploratory missions in the eastern Sudanese Nubian Desert, cataloguing around one hundred mining settlements and determining the period of gold exploitation in the region, from the Egyptian to the Islamic medieval period. A number of lithic tools for working gold-bearing quartz, recovered during these missions, are displayed in the new museum. They also carry out archaeological excavations of some monumental circular platform mounds with a diameter often exceeding 15 metres. In the crater of Onib (El Hofra) they found around 40 of these mounds, possibly the royal necropolis of the pre-Islamic Beja. In February 1993, they discovered in the wadi Elei, in the Eastern Nubian Desert, several prehistoric tombs dated around 4500 B.C., where they found peculiar features not found in other tombs from the same period, and numerous circular stone structures indicating the presence of a large village dating back to a new prehistoric culture, which they called "of the Elei" after the name of the wadi. In 1996, they took part in a mission to the eastern Libyan desert with G.Carlo Negro, Luigi Balbo and other researchers, to study and classify 'silica glass'. the 'glass of the stars'. In fact, this precious mineral is believed to have originated from a celestial body (perhaps a comet) that entered the Earth's atmosphere some 28.5 million years ago, exploding before touching the desert surface. The extremely high temperature caused by the deflagration caused the quartz contained in the sand to melt, creating 'silica glass' or LDSG (Lybian Desert Silica Glass), which is natural glass with 98 per cent silica. The scarab (khepri) embedded in Pharaoh Tutankamon's breastplate is made of this mineral. Fragments of silica glass are displayed in a showcase in the museum.In 1997, numerous human bone remains and some artefacts dating back to the ancient Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids were found in the Western Egyptian Desert. This discovery suggests the discovery of the first traces of the Lost Army of Cambises II (529-522 BC), described by the Greek historian Herodotus in his work 'Histories'. In 2001, they discovered numerous hieroglyphic inscriptions that made it possible to identify the track of conquest of Nubia through the desert, travelled by the armies of the pharaohs. A military penetration that began in Korosko, a city that has now disappeared under the waters of Lake Nasser, and reached the border stele of Kurgus that marked the southern limit of the African lands conquered by Thutmose I and Thutmose III, pharaohs of the 18th dynasty. During this mission they also identified 'the pilgrims' trail', marked by numerous graffiti of dromedary caravans, which led from the Nile to the Red Sea and the Holy Cities of the Islamic Creed. From 2004 to 2008, they carried out a systematic collection of prehistoric ceramic fragments from the eastern Nubian Desert, positioning the recovery areas on a satellite map, which made it possible, among other things, to identify the movements of Mesolithic populations in the region. In 2005, based on a 6th Dynasty hieroglyphic inscription, they traced the route through the Irtjet Mountains taken by Prince Harkhuf on behalf of Pharaoh Pepi II (2246-2152 BC) to the land of Iam. Also in 2005, they found and documented the medieval Islamic track marked by 'alamat' - stone constructions erected to point caravans in the right direction - from the Nile to the gold mining area of Wawat.In 2006 they carried out a mission to the centre of the Sudanese Nubian desert to determine the areas of auriferous quartz exploited by Pharaonic Egypt and those under the rule of the Kingdom of Kerma. In collaboration with the Academician of France Charles Bonnet they evaluate the material collected and present the results of this research at the International Conference on Nubian Studies at the University of Warsaw (27.8 - 2.9.2006) and at the Sociéte Francaise d'Egyptologie (Paris, 12.10.2007). From 30 October to 19 November 2007, they organised, with Derek A. Welsby of the British Museum in London, a mission to recover some boulders with prehistoric graffiti that were destined to disappear under the waters of the lake created by the Merowe Dam built at the height of the 4th cataract on the Nile. 54 boulders and the base of a Kushite pyramid were saved. Three of these graffiti are currently kept at the Museo Civico in Rovereto. In 2008, they found the gold mines of the land of Amu mentioned in the 'list of mines' that Pharaoh Ramesses II (1279-1212 BC) had written in the temple of Luxor, a settlement whose location was unknown. In 2011, they began a series of archaeological missions to Eritrea to unearth the site of Adulis, one of the most important ancient Red Sea ports. The settlement, probably founded during the Axum Kingdom, had trade relations with the Ptolemies and the Roman Empire. It is conceivable that the area on which Adulis stood is the mythical Land of Punt mentioned in numerous Ancient Egyptian texts. They are founders of the association 'Ce.R.D.O.' (Eastern Desert Research Centre) and are members of the Sudan Archaeological Research Society in London, the International Society for Nubian Studies and the 'IICE' (Italian Institute for Egyptian Civilisation). The Castiglioni brothers have published 16 books and made five feature films, as well as numerous archaeological popularisation documentaries and have written articles for various archaeological and scientific research journals (Archeologia Viva, Archeo, Egyptian Archaeology, The Sudan Archaeological Research Society, Bulletin de la Société Francaise d'Egyptologie, etc.).

The Nubian Desert

The Sudanese Nubian Desert was the land of gold in ancient times. Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Arab historical sources leave no doubts. For millennia, man has extracted gold from quartz veins scattered over a vast area, especially in the territories crossed by ancient fossil rivers such as the Allaki wadi and its tributaries, the Gabgaba and the Elei. In the Wawat region, the heart of Sudanese Nubia, generations of miners dug, suffered and died.

Berenice Panchrysos

The annals of Tutmosi III, carved in hieroglyphic characters on the walls of the temple of Karnak, record a precise accounting: in three years of his reign, as much as 829 kg of gold flowed into the coffers of the mighty pharaoh. Where did this enormous quantity of the precious metal come from? What role did the mysterious city of Berenice Panchrysos, the 'all-gold' city described by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis historia, play?

Rock graffiti

If the desert, in Pharaonic times, represented a huge casket of sand from which to draw great riches, in a more remote past, when the climatic and environmental conditions were very different, it was a place rich in fauna and inhabited by populations of hunters. Populations who, as evidence of their passage, have left us rock graffiti exceptional in quantity, workmanship and beauty.

The basin of the uadi Bergiug

In 1982 Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni, together with Giancarlo Negro and Luigi Balbo, undertook an expedition to reach the Wadi Bergiug basin, located south-west of Libya, to locate, thanks to the use of the first terrestrial satellite navigation systems, the exact geographical position of the beautiful prehistoric graffiti present in the area. During the expedition, for the first time in the world, with a resin specially prepared by Ciba Geigy, the mold of the most important graffiti was taken, obtaining precise documentation of exceptional prehistoric works of art.

Studies on petroglyphs

On the casts, many scholars have been able to further their studies of the rock engravings. This incredible 'open-air art gallery', engraved on the fragile sandstone, has survived for millennia. Increasingly critical climatic conditions are irreparably damaging it, erasing the precious testimony of a past life. Today, thanks to the work of the Castiglioni brothers (who have made over 50 casts), visitors can admire a unique and extremely difficult artistic heritage.

Bergiug's graffiti

They are among the best graffiti in African wall art. In the southern Libyan desert, on the walls of deep uidian cutting across the plateau, thousands of representations of the fauna that lived in those regions, now barren, when they were rich in water and pasture. It takes a considerable stretch of the imagination to imagine the great fauna, now living thousands of kilometres further south, drinking along the banks of these fossilised rivers.

An open-air art gallery

Hundreds of graffiti, like paintings in an open-air art gallery, show a vanished world: pastoral activities, large animals, religious rituals are engraved on the walls, as if the man of the past wanted to pass on the memory of his existence to us.

Ancient hunting techniques

The Bergiug graffiti document the hunting techniques and prehistoric traps that we still find used today. These graffiti date back to about 10,000 years ago and belong to the period of "great wild fauna", when man was above all a hunter.

The elephant hunt graffiti

From the diary of the mission: “From the early hours of the day we travel along the wadi In Galguien, an ancient tributary of the Bergiug. According to the program established before departure, we are making the casts of dozens of graffiti, using a special epoxy resin developed by Ciba Geigy“.

Documenting a prehistoric heritage that time is slowly breaking up

We find several boulders with engravings which, due to the passage of time and the changed environmental conditions, have detached from the walls and are lying on the ground. We continue to make the casts.

The elephant graffiti

Not far away, about 4-5 meters from the bottom of the wadi, we notice two exceptional elephant graffiti. We are incredulous in seeing how a hunter many thousands of years ago managed to fix these two images on the rock in which spontaneity and immediacy mix with the precision of the details and exceptional realism. They are among the best examples dating back to the most ancient phase of the prehistoric wall art of the Bergiug.

The human figure between the paws

Engraved between the legs of one of the two elephants is a schematic human figure of about 20 centimetres in height. It is made roughly, with only a few strokes, as is usually the case in graffiti dating from the earliest phase, where man is rarely depicted and, when he is, it is in a schematic manner. We fix our attention on this particular character and notice that, from the right hand, a large line starts pointing towards the belly of the animal. As we are trying to find an explanation, we are reminded of a hunting trip by the Ba-binga pygmies, in the rainforests of Gabon, which we witnessed some 20 years ago.

Giraffe trap graffiti

Also during our search for prehistoric graffiti, we find, in wadi Mathendush, the engraving of a giraffe made with excellent technique and in a naturalistic style. In front of the animal, represented with a raised paw, we notice a "rayed circle" and we make the cast.

The trap for catching the giraffe

The graffiti of the trapped ostrich

From the mission diary - 1983, Wadi Mathendush (Libya): "We look carefully at an ostrich graffito, caught in a trap (represented by the circle around the animal), carved on a sandstone wall. Counting the heads and long necks, there are six. So there are six imprisoned ostriches. On closer inspection, however, the doubt arises that it is only one animal: if there are six heads and necks, there are only two legs. So a single animal that the prehistoric hunter would have represented with multiple heads to highlight the rapid movements of the trapped animal in search of a way out. A behaviour we have seen in Cameroun. An ostrich trapped in an enclosure was looking for an escape route standing still on its paws but with its head in constant movement."

The Bubalus Antiquus

The Bubalus Antiquus, with its powerful horns, which disappeared from northern Africa about 4000 years ago, is found only in this prehistoric engraving.

The painter Giacomo Balla (1871-1958)

The decomposition of the image is often present in the paintings of this futurist painter. In his painting 'Dynamism of a dog on a leash', several images of a dog's tail and legs are represented. Giacomo Balla said that 'things in motion multiply'. The same 'artistic artifice' was also applied by a prehistoric hunter in another graffito from the uadi Geddis. An antelope, about to enter a trap, is depicted with its front paws 'in motion".

The Lost Caravan: The Story

Over the millennia, many men have ploughed the desert in search of precious stones and minerals, for military purposes or to trade. Today, as in the past, the dangers facing travellers in this environment are always the same: losing direction, being caught in a sandstorm, finding a silted-up well... The desert can be ruthless. The Castiglioni brothers experienced this during an expedition in 1977, starting from Timbuktu, on the Niger River, and ending in Nguigmi, on Lake Chad. About halfway along the route, the archaeological twins made the dramatic discovery of an entire Tuaregh caravan dying of thirst. In a room of the museum, this desert tragedy has been reconstructed to make the visitor reflect on the risks and suffering that many men had to face living in such a hostile environment so different from our own.

The Bejas

The Nubians

Somatic characters

An ancient people

The history of the Beja is very ancient. They were already known in the 3rd millennium by the Egyptian Pharaohs, who referred to them as 'Megiay', and later by the Ptolemies as 'Cadoi ophiophagi' (snake-eaters). The Romans called them 'Blemmi' and Pliny the Elder described them as headless men with eyes and a mouth in the middle of their chests. Arab writers of the Middle Ages referred to them as 'Buja', which originated the current term Beja.

The Bejas today

The weapons

During their frequent journeys, the Beja never part with their weapons: the long sword kept in a leather sheath adorned with silver threads, the dagger with its curved blade, the round shield sometimes made from elephant skin and the 'trombash', the curved throwing stick that the Beja swivel a short distance above the ground to hunt the small Dorca gazelles: an ancient weapon also used in Pharaonic Egypt.

Ancient jewels

The women have their faces uncovered and adorn the nasal fin with engraved gold plates which, often, the Beja obtain by laminating the ductile nuggets they find in the sand of the "wadis". A precious jewel handed down from mother to daughter.

The lost caravan

Discover the history, life and extraordinary traditions of millenary peoples.

The bugs

The wadi is also home to numerous insects: the most common, in addition to flies, are locusts, praying mantises and scorpions. The climatic and environmental conditions are also favorable to human life, today as in the past.

The yellow scorpion

The yellow scorpion (whose scientific name is Leiurus quinquestriatus), nicknamed the Death Stalker in Anglo-Saxon countries, is considered the most venomous of all existing scorpions. As can be deduced from its name, the most striking aesthetic feature of this animal is its yellow colour, which changes gradation according to the area in which it lives (the colour helps it to blend in with its surroundings). Often, it also has a black band at the end of its tail - but this detail is not always present, which may sometimes pose problems in identifying the animal. Three to eight centimetres long, females are commonly smaller than males. Unlike other scorpions, the claws of yellow scorpions have a more limited strength. However, it is not the claws that make them highly dangerous animals, but rather their venom.

The desert fox

It's the smallest canid in the world, lives in the desert of North Africa and can be recognised by its large ears, about 17 cm long. Compared to its body, they are very disproportionate, but they have a great function: they are a natural air conditioner, allowing it to dissipate the heat accumulated during torrid days and making hunting more certain. During the day, the Fennec prefers to stay cool, in its den, but at night, thanks to its excellent hearing, it is able to hunt rodents and small reptiles. It has very light-coloured fur ranging from beige to white and this guarantees it good camouflage as well as a cooler temperature precisely because the light colouring of its fur reflects the sun's rays. Its paws are covered with a thick layer of hair that enables it to walk on hot sand and not get burnt.

The Nile Hamites

Let yourself be surprised by the wonders of African Body Art

A unique ethnic stock

In a vast swathe of the African continent between Lake Turkana and Lake Victoria, where the sources of the White Nile, emblem of the discovery and conquest of the mysterious hinterland of 'black Africa', are found, live a number of populations that belong to a single ethnic strain: the Nilo Camiti. The best known group is the Maasai.

The Body Art of Africa

The Nilo Camiti peoples, apart from livestock, possess few other material goods. The greatest wealth is their body. And it is precisely among these peoples that we witness one of the most significant forms of 'Body Art' in Africa.

The hairstyles

What strikes the curiosity of those who observe these populations for the first time are the elaborate hairstyles of the hair, both male and female, sprinkled with red ochre, coloured powders and animal fat. Hairstyles made even more conspicuous by the addition of postictive elements, such as ostrich feathers and beads, which make it possible to know, without possibility of error, the individual's status, age class, and social position.Impressed by these exceptional hairstyles, Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni searched for a way to succeed in preserving a very ephemeral art form, destined to disappear with the wearer. After a few trips, they came up with the idea of reproducing them on some wigs brought from Italy, following traditional techniques and using locally found materials. Now the hairstyles are on display in the Museum as a reminder of a craft destined, in all likelihood, to disappear within a few years.

The Samburu

The Samburu live in north-central Kenya. They are semi-nomadic shepherds, although, in recent decades, some have dedicated themselves to agricultural work. Men wear a normally red cloth (which can also be black), wrapped around the waist.

Male ornaments

Men love to wear colorful beaded necklaces hanging on their chests. They are ornaments that they also use to embellish the head, forehead and hair. In the earlobes they wear circlets once made with elephant ivory.

The feathers on the head

Adult men often stuff feathers from savannah birds into their hair. The adorning of the head with feathers is found in almost all ethnic groups, not only Africans.

The spears

The Nile Hamites never part with their spears, especially when they take their herds out to pasture, to defend them from predatory animals, lions and leopards, and to protect themselves from incursions by hostile groups, in an environment where abigeatism is still rife and pastures are contested, especially after recurring droughts..

A protective visor

Often the hair, composed in thin braids falling over the eyes, not only has an ornamental function, but also serves to protect the eyes from the strong light.

The Morans

They often paint their bodies with red ochre and twist their hair into numerous braids, sometimes artificially lengthened. This is the hallmark of the Morans, the young initiates and circumcised, belonging to the warrior age group. It is the true 'artistic cosmetics', the most beautiful and genuine, the most limpid and immediate, dictated only by the desire to please, to attract attention, to enjoy the perfect harmony of a young body, full of the will to live.

Samburu women

They used to wear only leather skirts stretched at the back, replaced today by cotton dresses, sometimes garishly coloured, consisting of two pieces of cloth, one wrapped around the waist, the other across the chest. They flaunt voluminous chests of coloured beads that can weigh up to a few kilos. Women also create decorative jewellery by embroidering the skin with coloured beads.

Be attractive

Women do not go unnoticed, dressed in dresses embellished with shells and coloured beads, with breastplates, sometimes made from the hair of elephants' and giraffes' tails, and metal earrings, bracelets and anklets. Ornaments that have a similar function to body painting. They make bodies beautiful, but also identify the rank, the social role of the wearer.

Bright teeth

The women are proud of their white teeth. During the long hours spent on the pastures, they sometimes chew a special piece of wood which, defibrated at one end, becomes a toothbrush whose sap cleans and brightens the incisors.

The Mursi

The Mursi are found in Mago National Park and number about 5,000 and are mainly pastoralists classified in the Nilo-Saharan language family. They live in a difficult-to-access area between Mago National Park and the Omo River and live mainly by pastoralism.

The Lip Plates

What probably makes the Mursi recognisable from other tribes are the labial plates (debhinya) worn by women, which, contrary to some assumptions, they did not start wearing to discourage slavers.  Instead, it seems that body modification is a way for the Mursi to teach their children to become social, moral and healthy people. Lip plates, made of mud and then decorated, are traditionally worn by girls of marriageable age and women of childbearing age. Girls of marriageable age wear them at dances to be more attractive, while married women often wear them while milking cattle and serving their husbands' meals, as the lip as they move creates a graceful movement.

The Pokots

The Pokot are a people mainly engaged in pastoralism and agriculture. They live mainly in Kenya in Pokot and Baringo counties but are also found in the Karamoja region of Uganda. The Pokot live by farming in the hills and form a distinct and separate group that grows maize and raises cattle, goats and sheep in the highlands north of Kitale at the mouth of the Marich Pass. Other groups of Pokot are mainly pastoralists and their life gravitates around cattle breeding and care. Cattle, as for many other tribes, are very important and synonymous with wealth; with cattle, among other things, they 'pay' their dowry for marriage. They rarely slaughter a cow and only for special occasions as the live animal is much more valuable to them. These groups in the past often came into conflict with the Turkana, Samburu and Karamojong of Uganda, due to frequent cattle raids and trespassing in search of water and new grazing areas. In fact, cattle play a central role in the human formation of young people; each Pokot, after initiation, the ceremony through which one enters society, which for men takes place between the ages of fifteen and twenty, is known by the name of his favourite ox. Pokot society is governed hierarchically, the elders of the groups are responsible for making decisions for the entire tribe concerning both social and religious aspects. These farming peoples boast a remarkable handicraft tradition, producing not only pottery and metal objects, but also snuffboxes made from gourds or animal horns.

The Tuaregs

Relive the memory of a world now gone.

The blue people

In ancient times, the Sahara was not a desert: until the Neolithic period, its mountains were covered with lush forests and its fauna was very rich. The progressive drying out of the area was one of the factors that drove humans and animals to leave in search of new places to colonise. Despite the extreme conditions, even today, some populations manage to survive in the desert. The most famous are, without doubt, the Tuaregs.

The nomadic shepherds of the desert

During the Castiglioni brothers' missions, it was often possible to come into contact with the Tuareg. A Berber population by language and physical characteristics, the Tuareg are camel-dwelling nomads who despise agriculture. They occupy vast territories in Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.  The Tuaregs of Algeria are generally light-skinned, which differentiates them from those settled further south who have darker pigmentation. They are divided into five separate and clearly differentiated castes that, starting with the 'Imochar' in a dominant position, include the 'Imrad', vassals who live off sheep farming, the 'Haratin', serfs who cultivate the land, the 'Iklan', black slaves and, finally, the 'Inaden', artisans, especially blacksmiths, despised but at the same time feared because they are believed to possess magical powers.

The ritual of tea

On many occasions we have sat in the shade of the Tuareg tents to quench our thirst with their favourite drink: tea offered in a ceremony that sometimes lasts a long time. The drink is poured to the guests in small glass glasses and comes in three varieties. The first is very strong, because this way the tea quenches thirst, clears the mind and relieves fatigue. The second is sweeter, the third variant is very sweet and is called 'the tea of love'.

Tent

The Tuaregs have always lived in tents, built of dozens of kid skins softened with fat, dyed red ochre, supported by poles that are sometimes carved. These dwellings are easy to dismantle and, when indispensable, to transport to other, more distant areas, richer in pastures and water. Today, the Tuareg are under pressure from the states in which they live to become sedentary and live in more solid housing structures.

Make-up

The Tuareg men are proud of their golden brown complexion and the beauty of their wives, enhanced with finely crafted silver jewellery and skilful 'make-up'. An inconspicuous make-up with which they emphasise the cut of the eyes with antimony sulphide and brighten the cheeks with 'tefetest', red ochre. The care of the face is particularly meticulous during festivals when the women accompany the dances with the sound of the 'tindè', the drum that is beaten with a characteristic curved stick or with their hands.

Tuareg mothers

Loving mothers, the Tuareg women take care of their children in the shade of their tents. We have sometimes seen mothers tie the youngest and liveliest children to the tent pole to prevent them from wandering off into the desert where dangers from thorns and scorpions are always possible.

Women: keepers of tradition

Women are often the repositories of traditions and myths, and it is thanks to them that ancient customs destined to be lost in the mists of time are preserved and handed down. It is still they who transmit, through song and music, the legends of the people. Sometimes they are the only ones who know Typhinagh, the Tuareg script composed of some thirty signs, indicating only consonants. We have seen them many times sitting, surrounded by young people, patiently composing the signs of the writing in the sand, while they recounted the group's even distant events.

The dromedary

Even today, the Tuareg consider themselves the sole owners of the desert areas in which they live. They deserve the credit for having been able to make extensive use of the dromedaries that are indispensable on long desert journeys because of their resistance, even to thirst.The camel driver "Camel drivers respect their animals even if they sometimes treat them rudely. Once we happened to meet a Tuareg far from the track, heading for some hills where he thought he could find pasture for his dromedary. The animal had not eaten for a week. It was very weak and was carrying its load with difficulty. It could have died. And if the dromedary dies in the desert, so does the man."

The "Blue Men"

Generally the "cheche" is white or indigo blue. This color is obtained from the fermentation of the "indigofera tintoria" flowers, which, settling on the skin of the face due to the effect of perspiration, gave rise to the legend of the dreaded "blue men" of the desert that once controlled the caravan routes and exacted the payment of tributes from the caravans that crossed their territories and from the subject populations.

Tools, weapons and ornaments

Discover the collection of beautiful and fascinating ethnic artifacts.

Music in Africa

It flows together with life. There is no moment or occasion that is not accompanied by the sound of an instrument, song and often even dance. Music is central to the culture of the peoples of the Dark Continent, and represents an element of high social and religious value. African musical instruments are objects of the most disparate shapes and forms that find their limit only in the imagination of the man who makes them.

The tools: how they are made

The tools are made with the most heterogeneous materials that nature offers: gourds, animal skins, horns, shells, wood, etc. Everything is used to build instruments with extraordinary musical timbres to which, only in recent years, modern materials have been added (worked metals, plastic, paper, etc.). Here it is possible to admire a collection of instruments of different origins and workmanship.

The "Calebasse"

The 'calebasse' is a gourd, the fruit of a plant of the cucurbitaceae family (Lagenaria siceraria), which is widespread in the African continent and from which containers of various shapes and multiple uses are made. Usually used to store food and as tableware, they can be made into pipes, musical instruments and other everyday objects. They are sometimes finely decorated with processes and motifs that belong to the ancestral traditions of different ethnic groups. Numerous calebasses are preserved in the Museum, which well represent the imagination and artistic taste of African man.

The graffiti

Admire the extraordinary rock graffiti casts that are unique in the world.