Posts: 1,504 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Mon 10 Jan, 2011 4:26 pm
From the size and the pattern, it looks Ethiopian to me. I don't know what the typical Ethiopian grip looks like - I haven't seen the back of one. If you search google images for "Ethiopian
shield", you should find plenty of ones with similar patterns. Many will be leather with the star pattern in metal ornamentation. Some are fabric covered, some are wooden, some are metal. About 1-2 feet in diameter, or a little less, looks typical for size.
The back of it looks like it could be a Moro shield, but it isn't a common type of grip - most have a central arm loop and a hand grip off to the side. This is much smaller than Moro round shields that I've seen, so it could be a central grip variation. The rest of the back, with the 4 ridges, is what looks Moro. I've never seen one with star shaped decoration on the front. I don't think this is likely to be Moro, but it's my next-best guess after Ethiopian.