The decorative element is made from small seashells (Marginella roscida), which were perforated and attached to the buckskin ground with a fine sinew thread. The pattern consists of a human figure in the centre flanked on either side by animals. The pattern is surrounded by circles. The exact meaning of the design is unknown, although it has been suggested that it may be some form of map.
The mantle is associated with Chief Powhatan (also called Wahunsenacawh, who died in 1618), the paramount chief of the Tsenacommacah, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans from what is now Virginia, USA. Powhatan was the father of Pocahontas. which includes a purse or bag embroidered with shells and three bows.
In 1659 it became part of the Elias Ashmole collection, who later used it as the nucleus of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The mantle is now part of the Tradescant Collection, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (acc. no. AN1685.B.205). The mantle was first put on display in 1683, when the museum opened to the public. The mantle is part of a small group of Algonquian Indian artefacts.
See also: Native American decorative needlework
Sources:
- BUSHNELL, David I., Jr. (1907). 'Virginia – from early records,' Journal of American Anthropologists, 9.1, pp. 31-44.
- http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/amulets/tradescant/tradescant07-13.html (retrieved 30 March 2016).
- http://www.she-philosopher.com/gallery/powhatan-map.html (retrieved 30 March 2016).
Digital source of illustration (retrieved 8 July 2016).
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