Traditions without a date

Rwanda · Traditional; undated

The agaseke is a tightly coiled Rwandan basket with a tall conical lid, woven by women from natural fibers. Long used to store and carry food and gifts, it became a national emblem and an export craft after 1994.

Kyrgyzstan · Traditional, date unknown

A tall white felt hat for Kyrgyz men, sewn from four felt panels and embroidered. UNESCO lists the craft of making it as intangible heritage.

Morocco · Traditional, date unknown

The method developed by Amazigh women of southwest Morocco for obtaining oil from the kernels of the argan tree by cracking, roasting, grinding and kneading. It supplies a food and cosmetic oil now sold worldwide.

Uzbekistan · traditional; flourished 19th century

Resist-dyed warp ikat cloth, silk atlas and silk-cotton adras, whose threads are bound and dyed before weaving to give blurred vivid patterns. Margilan in the Fergana Valley is its historic center.

Canada · Before European contact

A light boat of birch bark over a cedar frame, built by Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands. It was the main craft of inland travel and of the fur trade in Canada.

Mali · Traditional, date unknown

A handmade Malian cotton cloth dyed with fermented, iron-rich mud. The technique became a symbol of Malian identity and a worldwide export.

Peru · Colonial era to 19th century

A wooden box drum the player sits on and slaps with the hands. Enslaved Africans on the coast of Peru made it from crates when their drums were banned, and it later spread worldwide through flamenco.

Uruguay · 18th to 19th century

A set of three barrel-shaped wooden drums, the chico, repique and piano, played together while walking in street processions. They were created by people of African descent in Montevideo.

Tajikistan · traditional, date unknown

A Tajik needlework tradition, centered on the Khatlon region around Kulob, that stitches bright symbolic motifs of nature and cosmos onto cotton or silk dresses, curtains and household textiles.

Zambia · Precolonial; described in 1939

Chitemene is a shifting cultivation system of the Bemba of northern Zambia in which branches cut from a wide area are burned on a small plot. The ash makes acidic woodland soil fit for finger millet and other crops.

Comoros · Early 20th century to present

Steam and hydro distillation of ylang-ylang flowers into graded essential oil for perfumery. The Comoros produces around 70 percent of the world supply, making the craft a national symbol.

Chad · Traditional; undated

Dihé is the traditional method of the Kanembu women of Lake Chad for skimming wild spirulina from brackish pools and drying it on sand into cakes. It is one of the few long-standing human uses of this protein-rich blue-green alga as food.

Kazakhstan · Prehistory

The cultivated apple descends mainly from Malus sieversii, a wild apple of the Tian Shan mountains of Kazakhstan. The forests near Almaty are recognized as the center of origin of the crop.

Fiji · Before European contact

A large plank-built, double-hulled sailing canoe made in Fiji, described by museums as among the largest and finest seagoing vessels built in Oceania before European contact.

Slovakia · traditional, documented by the 19th century

A very long three-hole overtone flute made and played by shepherds in central Slovakia. UNESCO lists the instrument and its music as intangible cultural heritage.

Dominican Republic · 20th century

A metal scraper percussion instrument, a perforated sheet-metal cylinder played with a stiff brush, that gives merengue and bachata their driving rasp.

Laos · Traditional, date unknown

A Lao free-reed mouth organ of bamboo pipes set in a hardwood wind chest. It is the national instrument of Laos and UNESCO lists its music as intangible heritage.

Djibouti · centuries old, ongoing

Afar and Issa nomads cut and gathered salt from the banks of Lake Assal and carried it by camel caravan to the Ethiopian highlands, where it was bartered for coffee, ivory and other goods.

Afghanistan · several millennia BCE onward

The mines of the Kokcha valley in Badakhshan have produced fine lapis lazuli for several thousand years and are among the oldest worked gem deposits on Earth.

Lesotho · traditional

A mouth-resonated bow whose string is set vibrating by blowing across a flattened quill, making it both a string and a wind instrument. It is regarded as Lesotho's national instrument.

Marshall Islands · Before 1862

A frame of palm ribs and shells that modeled ocean swells and island positions, used to teach Marshallese navigators how to find low atolls by the feel of the waves.

Sudan · 1st millennium BCE to early 1st millennium CE

Large-scale bloomery iron production at the Kushite royal city of Meroe, which left huge slag heaps that are among the site's most prominent remains.

Lesotho · origin unclear; national symbol in the 20th century

A conical woven straw hat with a knotted top, said to be modeled on Mount Qiloane. It is part of Lesotho's national dress and a national symbol.

Angola · 19th century and earlier

A carved wooden face mask of the Chokwe representing an idealized young woman, with concave eye sockets, scarification marks and a fiber coiffure. It is worn by male dancers in mukanda initiation ceremonies and is among the most recognized Central African art forms.

Yemen · traditional, date unknown

A fanlight of colored glass set in a carved gypsum plaster lattice, placed above the windows of Yemeni houses, especially in Old Sanaa. The name comes from the Arabic word for moon.

Burundi · Precolonial kingdom of Burundi (c. 17th century onward)

Large wooden drums that were sacred objects of the Burundian monarchy, with the karyenda as the main symbol of the kingdom and its mwami. The synchronized drumming, dance and specialized drum-making skills are UNESCO-listed heritage.

Afghanistan · traditional, date of origin not established

A short-necked plucked lute carved from mulberry wood, called the lion of instruments. It is Afghanistan's national instrument and the ancestor of the Indian sarod.

Tunisia · Traditional

Women in Sejnane, northern Tunisia, make hand-built terracotta with a specific local method of preparing wadi clay and painting two-tone geometric patterns. UNESCO listed the skill in 2018.

Angola · Precolonial tradition, documented from the 20th century

A system of continuous one-line geometric figures traced in sand around a grid of dots by Lunda-Chokwe storytellers. The drawings work as memory aids for fables and teaching, and have become a classic case study in ethnomathematics.

Morocco · Traditional, date unknown

A Moroccan lime plaster that is compressed, polished with a stone and sealed with olive oil soap to make a seamless waterproof surface. It is the traditional lining of hammams, cisterns and basins.

Togo · Traditional, date unknown

The earthen tower-house of the Batammariba of Koutammakou, with animals on the ground floor and living space and granaries on a flat roof terrace.

Turkmenistan · Traditional, undated

Hand-knotted wool carpets with dense texture and tribal geometric patterns, woven on horizontal or vertical looms by Turkmen weavers.

Albania · Ancient, undated

A bell-shaped felt skirt handmade by highland women of northern Albania from strips of woven wool, with a form that scholars compare to ancient Balkan figurines.

Bosnia and Herzegovina · Traditional, undated

A cross-stitch embroidery technique from the Zmijanje villages near Banja Luka that uses only deep blue thread on white cloth to build improvised geometric patterns.