Lot 64

Taino Carved Shell & Bone Zemi Amulets - Group of Three, Hispaniola

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Lot 64
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Taino Carved Shell & Bone Zemi Amulets - Group of Three, Hispaniola
Taino Carved Shell & Bone Zemi Amulets - Group of Three, Hispaniola
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Taino Carved Shell & Bone Zemi Amulets - Group of Three, Hispaniola

Estimate: $600 - $900
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT (In Progress)
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Pre-Columbian, Dominican Republic, Taino, ca. 1000–1500 CE. A trio of diminutive amulets carved by Taino hands from the marine and mammalian materials of Hispaniola. The smallest and largest are worked from dense clam shell, their pale surfaces incised with crouching anthropomorphic figures, banded headdresses, and skeletal grimacing visages that signal contact with the ancestral and spirit worlds. The midsized example, fashioned from manatee bone and pierced for suspension, tapers to a blunt point and may have served as a spatula for the inhalation of cohoba, the hallucinogenic snuff central to Taino divination. Each compact form embodies a zemi, a vessel of supernatural power believed to house ancestral or deific spirits. Worn close to the body or deployed in ritual, these objects mediated between caciques, behiques (shamans), and the unseen forces governing weather, harvest, and fate. Size of largest: 3.6" L x 0.8" W (9.1 cm L x 2.0 cm W).

The Taino, the dominant Arawakan-speaking people of the Greater Antilles at the moment of European contact, organized much of their religious life around zemis, spirits embodied in carved figures of shell, bone, wood, and stone. The cohoba ceremony, in which finely ground seeds of Anadenanthera were inhaled through bone or wooden implements, allowed behiques to commune with these spirits and to prophesy. Skeletal and emaciated imagery, as seen on the figural carvings here, frequently references Maquetaurie Guayaba, lord of Coaybay, the realm of the dead. Manatee bone, prized for its density and ivory-like working qualities, was a favored medium for the elite's most intimate ritual paraphernalia.

Provenance: ex-private collection, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, USA, collected from 2010 to 2015

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Item # 198329

  • Condition: Good. Largest has been repaired with break lines visible. Encrustations to suspension hole of largest inhibits wearability. All have light surface wear. Manatee bone has natural ossification and pitting. Otherwise, the two more petite pendants are intact and wearable. All are very nice with good remaining detail and light patina.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000