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Switzerland and showing local women in their traditional costumes, adorned with beads and jewelry. The book is meant as a bulwark against the destructive forces of oblivion, completing a story that begun in 1949, when renowned French archaeologist Raymond Mauny published the production techniques of these then unknown beads. I hope it will serve as a reminder for future generations, inside and outside Mauritania, of the outstanding artistic abilities of these Sahel-desert dwellers before natural catastrophe struck and destroyed the Kiffa industry and much of their other artistic culture. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We discussed daily every possible aspect of our specimens: their design, color, shape, condition, repair, patina, texture, trade, actual and alternative production method, religious aspect, the meaning of pattern and related dress code and hairstyle. In addition, we sent each other photographs of rare beads, copies of articles and papers and all relevant magazine and book clippings on the matter. We hunted the internet for photographs of Mauritanian women in traditional dress and informed each other when interesting beads hit the marketplace. This mutual exchange has increased both our knowledge. In my planned, large format book, the study opens with beads of different materials, followed by jewelry that played an important role in the country's culture as well. Worn side-byside with Kiffas, most of these ornaments share the same iconography and serve the same purpose as religious artifacts. Imports from the Eastern Mediterranean are represented in the form of certain eyebeads, many kinds of folded Islamic glass specimens and ultimately Mauritania's imperial regalia, the much desired morfia—most likely the invention and production of Syrian beadmakers, rather than the assumed product of al-Fustat, Egypt (Liu 2012). Not only glass, but other members of Mauritania's extended bead family are included, often as complete, authentic necklaces depicted in photographs and sketches. The preponderance of the volume is devoted to the Muraqad, known as the country's most successful export of handicrafts. My collection has all six classical shapes: triangular, round, cylindrical, lozenge, hemispheric, and conical. Beads and jewelry, necessary tools and the process of beadmaking is presented in step-by-step sketches. In addition to photographs and Sergio's sketches, I have been given unexpected access to a series of over two hundred unpublished black-and-white photographs taken during the 1930s by the prominent Neuchâtel Museum in REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Allen, J. D. 1996 Kiffa Beads. Ornament 10 (1): 76–77. Brain, R. 1979 The decorated body. Harper & Row, New York: 8-15 Busch, J. 1994 From Powder to Magic. Newsletter of the Bead Society of Great Britain (25): 3–6. — 1995/1996 The Kiffa Bead Tradition in Mauritania. Newsletter of the Bead Society of Great Britain (30, 35, 45): 3–8, 7–9, 3–8. Delaroziere, M.-F. 1984 Les Perles Mauritaniennes. Ornament 8 (3): 24–27. Gabus, J. 1982 Sahara bijoux et techniques. Neuchatel, Baconniere: 508 p. Gumpert, A. 1995. The once and future Kiffa. The Bead Society of Greater Washington Newsletter XII (5): 1–3. Holl, A.F.C. 2006 West African Early Towns. University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology (95): 16-19. Ki-Zerbo, J. 1992 Die Geschichte Schwarz-Afrikas. Frankfurt/a.M, Fischer Verlag: 131-144. Levtzion, N. and Hopkins, J.F.P. (Eds) 2000 Corpus of the Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Princeton, Marcus Wiener Publishers: 107-109 Liu, R. K. 1984 African-Made Glass Ornaments. Survey & Experimental Results. Ornament 8 (2): 52–57. —2008 Mauritanian conus shell disks. A comparison of ancient and ethnographic ornaments. Ornament 32 (1): 56-59. —2012 Islamic Glass Beads. The Well-traveled Ornament. Ornament 36 (1): 58-63, 70. —Ahn, P.M. and D. Giberson 2001 Bodom and related beads. Investigating African powder-glass technology. Ornament 25 (20): 28-33. Mauny, R. 1949 Fabrication de perles de verre en Mauritanie. Notes Africaines 44: 116–118. McKissack, P. and F. 1994 The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhay. New York, Henry Holt and Company: 43-70. Opper & Opper, H. and M.-J. 1989a Kiffa Beads. Alexandria: 13 p. —1989b Rare Mauritanian Kiffa Beads. Ornament 12 (3): 25–32. —1992 An Update on Kiffa Beads. Bead Society of Greater Washington Newsletter 9 (1): 4–5. —1993 Powdered Glass Beads and Bead Trade in Mauritania. Beads (5): 37–44. Osswald, R. 1986 Die Handelsstädte der Westsahara. Berlin, Verlag von Dietrich Reimer: 10-24. Puigaudeau du, O. 2002 Arts et costumes des Maures. Paris, Ibis Press: 155-187. Robert, D.S. 1970 Les fouilles de Tagadoust. Journal of African History 11 (4): 471–493. Seiwert, W.-D. 1988 Maurische Chronik. Leipzig/Weimar, Gustav Kiepenheurer Verlag. 209 p. Smith, M.T. 1981 European and aboriginal glass pendants in North America. Ornament 5 (2): 21-23. 61 ORNAMENT 36.2.2012 MAURITANIAN woman beadmaker, showing her tools and equipment for the making of powderglass beads or Kiffas, drawn during recent expedition by the artist Sergio. I accumulated a big debt of gratitude to Dr. Robert K. Liu; he was the first to encourage me to write a book on Kiffa Beads in 1994 and has been a constant supporter regarding Muraqad and beyond. I owe a literal debt to The Bead Society of Los Angeles, from whom I received a substantial grant in 1994, but have not been able to complete the demanding work to establish a classification system for muraqad. This article and a book to follow, might be my payback. Bismillah— thanks to "Chef Général" Sidi Mohamed Mahmoud from Kiffa and Nouakchott, my good friend Hacen, "Directeur de l'école" in Kiffa, Abdellahi ould Nahah but also Mohamed Arkhaoui in Tiznit, who delivered the first beads in 1994. Thanks to Sergio, my artist friend from Cyprus, who drew more than one hundred sketches for the project when we visited Kiffa together in 2010. Thanks as well to my wife Nataliya, who produced the graphic/map. I would particularly like to thank Dr. Olivier Schinz from the Musée d'ethnographie Neuchâtel (MEN), Switzerland. Not only did he introduce me to their Mauritanian collection but also allowed publication of sketches by Hans Erni, the museum's superb artist and also the rare photographs taken by the late Professor Jean Gabus, the museum's director between 1945-1978, during expeditions to the Sahara between the 1940s and 1970s. I thank Thomas and Alex Stricker of strickerphotograph.com for their bead photography.