Woman's shawl, embroidered silk (detail)
Egypt; Siwa Oasis
Collected by Ahmed Fakhry, ca. 1940 (?), acc. 1979.
5-13826
The museum's African collections are not restricted to the sub-Saharan part of the continent. The inhabitants of Siwa, in Egypt's Western Desert, are a Berber people. The designs on this shawl, which is worn on festive occasions, are passed from mother to daughter. They are symbolic and protective: both the embroidered patterns and the choice of colors have been linked to solar motifs. Fakhry, an archaeologist who worked for the Antiquities Service of Egypt, was born in the Fayum Oasis.
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