Bouclier de combat traditionnel "tafa" ou "gasha", avant 1853
K.K. Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum Vienna, Austria
Rudolf Leopold, Vienna, Austria
Description
animal skin, handwritten inv. no. “12194”, old label inscribed: “K. K. Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum - Anthropologisch-Ethnographische Sammlung, on reverse: “II. 383.12194. - 1881 - Probably from Abyssinia - Coll. Dr. Reitz (1853)”
This shield has a very interesting history, as evidenced by the old collection label. According to this, it comes from the collection of Dr. Reitz - more precisely Konstantin Reitz, a colourful figure whose adventurous life is well documented and whose early death in 1853 provides information about the early date of the shield’s origin.
Born in Bobenhausen, Hesse, in 1817, Reitz received his doctorate in 1842 after discontinuing his studies in forestry. From 1844 onwards he travelled to distant countries, including Egypt, where he entered Austrian service in 1848 and met the animal researcher Alfred Brehm. In 1851 he went to Khartoum in Central Africa. From here he navigated through all the Nile cataracts, thus proving the navigability of the Nile from Central Africa to its mouth. At his own expense, he bought 200 African animals for the zoo in Vienna-Schönbrunn and accompanied their transport on the Nile. On an expedition to Ethiopia, he was the first traveller to use the caravan route from Abu Harras to Gondar. He rendered special services to the exploration of the Atbara from its mouth to its source. After a fulfilled but short life, Reitz died in Doka in Sudan in 1853 and was buried there in a rock tomb.