Wanderlust

This pendant is made from a Masai spearhead I found in the Arusha Bazaar in Tanzania. While in Tanzania I had the opportunity to meet members of the Masai, a fascinating semi-nomadic warrior tribe with their extraordinarily colorful and intricate traditional jewelry that makes the Masai unique and quickly identifiable. 

Since their traditions echo an African past and modern man journeyed out of the Savannah, I thought it would be apropos to stamp the DNA sequence for a Telomere on the surface of the spear.

A Telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome that protects it from deterioration. In essence, if you can keep the Telomere alive (which some geneticists purport potentially possible), you can achieve “eternal life” by halting the aging process. 

The spearhead is one inch and 3/4 of an inch long and has been left with all the nicks and grooves made from the original spearhead creator.