wampum / belt / bead

Wampum belt, with a white ground, and two parallel zig-zag lines of purple wampum, three beads in width. Most of the length of the belt is 16 beads wide; however at one end, 12 beads in from the end, the number of skin warps is reduced from 17 to 15. At this point one of the purple lines is reduced in width from three to two beads. The skin warps form fringes at both ends; the end with the reduced number of warps also has attached an oval skin zoomorphic feature, with a tail and four limbs indicated by skin tabs holding thin white discoidal shell beads. The other end seems to finish with the full 17 skin warps; but abrasions to these warps suggest the shadows of wefts, now missing with the beads from that end section. There may also be weft shadows on the warp-fringe at the end with the zoomorphic feature. The purple zig-zag lines touch the top edge of the belt 7 times, and the bottom 8 times. The belt is c 170 beads long. One or two beads are missing.

Museum number

Am1931,-.12

Description

Full: Front

Wampum belt, with a white ground, and two parallel zig-zag lines of purple wampum, three beads in width. Most of the length of the belt is 16 beads wide; however at one end, 12 beads in from the end, the number of skin warps is reduced from 17 to 15. At this point one of the purple lines is reduced in width from three to two beads. The skin warps form fringes at both ends; the end with the reduced number of warps also has attached an oval skin zoomorphic feature, with a tail and four limbs indicated by skin tabs holding thin white discoidal shell beads. The other end seems to finish with the full 17 skin warps; but abrasions to these warps suggest the shadows of wefts, now missing with the beads from that end section. There may also be weft shadows on the warp-fringe at the end with the zoomorphic feature. The purple zig-zag lines touch the top edge of the belt 7 times, and the bottom 8 times. The belt is c 170 beads long. One or two beads are missing.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

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  • Wampum belt, with a white ground, and two parallel zig-zag lines of purple wampum, three beads in width. Most of the length of the belt is 16 beads wide; however at one end, 12 beads in from the end, the number of skin warps is reduced from 17 to 15. At this point one of the purple lines is reduced in width from three to two beads. The skin warps form fringes at both ends; the end with the reduced number of warps also has attached an oval skin zoomorphic feature, with a tail and four limbs indicated by skin tabs holding thin white discoidal shell beads. The other end seems to finish with the full 17 skin warps; but abrasions to these warps suggest the shadows of wefts, now missing with the beads from that end section. There may also be weft shadows on the warp-fringe at the end with the zoomorphic feature. The purple zig-zag lines touch the top edge of the belt 7 times, and the bottom 8 times. The belt is c 170 beads long. One or two beads are missing.

    Full: Front

  • Wampum belt, with a white ground, and two parallel zig-zag lines of purple wampum, three beads in width. Most of the length of the belt is 16 beads wide; however at one end, 12 beads in from the end, the number of skin warps is reduced from 17 to 15. At this point one of the purple lines is reduced in width from three to two beads. The skin warps form fringes at both ends; the end with the reduced number of warps also has attached an oval skin zoomorphic feature, with a tail and four limbs indicated by skin tabs holding thin white discoidal shell beads. The other end seems to finish with the full 17 skin warps; but abrasions to these warps suggest the shadows of wefts, now missing with the beads from that end section. There may also be weft shadows on the warp-fringe at the end with the zoomorphic feature. The purple zig-zag lines touch the top edge of the belt 7 times, and the bottom 8 times. The belt is c 170 beads long. One or two beads are missing.

    Full: Front

  • Wampum belt, with a white ground, and two parallel zig-zag lines of purple wampum, three beads in width. Most of the length of the belt is 16 beads wide; however at one end, 12 beads in from the end, the number of skin warps is reduced from 17 to 15. At this point one of the purple lines is reduced in width from three to two beads. The skin warps form fringes at both ends; the end with the reduced number of warps also has attached an oval skin zoomorphic feature, with a tail and four limbs indicated by skin tabs holding thin white discoidal shell beads. The other end seems to finish with the full 17 skin warps; but abrasions to these warps suggest the shadows of wefts, now missing with the beads from that end section. There may also be weft shadows on the warp-fringe at the end with the zoomorphic feature. The purple zig-zag lines touch the top edge of the belt 7 times, and the bottom 8 times. The belt is c 170 beads long. One or two beads are missing.

    Detail: Other

  • Wampum belt, with a white ground, and two parallel zig-zag lines of purple wampum, three beads in width. Most of the length of the belt is 16 beads wide; however at one end, 12 beads in from the end, the number of skin warps is reduced from 17 to 15. At this point one of the purple lines is reduced in width from three to two beads. The skin warps form fringes at both ends; the end with the reduced number of warps also has attached an oval skin zoomorphic feature, with a tail and four limbs indicated by skin tabs holding thin white discoidal shell beads. The other end seems to finish with the full 17 skin warps; but abrasions to these warps suggest the shadows of wefts, now missing with the beads from that end section. There may also be weft shadows on the warp-fringe at the end with the zoomorphic feature. The purple zig-zag lines touch the top edge of the belt 7 times, and the bottom 8 times. The belt is c 170 beads long. One or two beads are missing.

    Detail: Other

  • Wampum belt, with a white ground, and two parallel zig-zag lines of purple wampum, three beads in width. Most of the length of the belt is 16 beads wide; however at one end, 12 beads in from the end, the number of skin warps is reduced from 17 to 15. At t

    Full: Front

  • Wampum belt, with a white ground, and two parallel zig-zag lines of purple wampum, three beads in width. Most of the length of the belt is 16 beads wide; however at one end, 12 beads in from the end, the number of skin warps is reduced from 17 to 15. At this point one of the purple lines is reduced in width from three to two beads. The skin warps form fringes at both ends; the end with the reduced number of warps also has attached an oval skin zoomorphic feature, with a tail and four limbs indicated by skin tabs holding thin white discoidal shell beads. The other end seems to finish with the full 17 skin warps; but abrasions to these warps suggest the shadows of wefts, now missing with the beads from that end section. There may also be weft shadows on the warp-fringe at the end with the zoomorphic feature. The purple zig-zag lines touch the top edge of the belt 7 times, and the bottom 8 times. The belt is c 170 beads long. One or two beads are missing. Belt or garter of wampum, woven on a bow-loom, the warp and weft of a commercial vegetal twine. The ground is of purple, and the design of white shell, and probably also glass beads. The symmetrical design consists of a triangle followed by a capital 'I' with an additional central bar, followed by a diamond, a barred 'I' and a triangle. The two triangles are composed of alternating white and purple beads; one has a misplaced bead, entered on the row second from the top, rather than at the end of the row second from the bottom. The central cross of the barred 'I's are composed of solid white lines of beads, he top and bottom of alternating white and purple beads. In the centre is a diamond of four white beads, with a purple one in the middle. There are seven warps and 6 rows of beads, by 83 beads long. The braided warps at the end have started to unravel; this means that the construction can be clearly seen: the weft is of two strands: these pass through the beads together and then divide to round the warps. At one end there are apparently two additional beads from a line of wampum otherwise missing. The apparent total number of beads is 6x83 = 498, plus 2 to make 500. The stringing of the beads on cotton? twine suggests that this, and no.3 in this collection, were restrung in the 19th century, perhaps also suggested by the mistakes to the white designs in both belts. Wampum belt, woven on a bow-loom with skin thong warps and wool or vegetal fibre wefts, of shell beads. The white ground is decorated with a zig-zag line, composed 7 'V's touching at the base/apex, formed of purple wampum, two in each line. There are nine warps: it is 8 rows wide, and 145 beads long, to produce a total number of 1160 beads. The apex of each 'V' if flat, and four or five purple beads long. At one end this flat edge ends in two purple beads, and at the other in three purple beads; so it is possible that complete lines of bead are missing from one or both ends. This is further suggested by regular marks on the thong warps, such as might have been left by bound wefts, now no longer present. The beads are of varied diameters and lengths.

    Group of Objects

  • Wampum belt, with a white ground, and two parallel zig-zag lines of purple wampum, three beads in width. Most of the length of the belt is 16 beads wide; however at one end, 12 beads in from the end, the number of skin warps is reduced from 17 to 15. At t

    Full: Front

  • Wampum belt, with a white ground, and two parallel zig-zag lines of purple wampum, three beads in width. Most of the length of the belt is 16 beads wide; however at one end, 12 beads in from the end, the number of skin warps is reduced from 17 to 15. At t

    Full: Front