Kasena Stone Armband, Ghana

A smooth, near-black band that does its job without ornament.

This armband is Kasena, from Northern Ghana, West Africa. It is granite. Granite is a hard, coarse-grained igneous rock, and shaping it into a ring requires patient grinding and polishing with abrasives. Circular ring with a broad, softly rounded face and a large round opening. The surface is dark grey-brown with a gentle polish and a few faint marks. The inner edge shows small nicks. It is 0.5 inches deep and 3.6 in diameter.

Minimalism before anyone thought to call it that.