Woman’s Ceremonial Skirt (Tapis), ILE2006.4.149

Title Woman’s Ceremonial Skirt (Tapis)
Culture Paminggir, Lampung
Geography Sumatra, Indonesia
Date 17th–18th century
Medium Cotton and silk; warp-faced plain weave, warp ikat, and embroidery
Dimensions 50 × 60 1/4 in. (127 × 153 cm)
Credit Line Robert J. Holmgren and Anita E. Spertus Collection, Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, B.A. 1971
Inv. No. ILE2006.4.149
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This textile has four bands with carefully worked dyed dark brown and two bands of embroidery. The embroidery design combines highly stylized figures with floral patterns. The radiocarbon dating for this cloth resulted in a wide date range, from before 1700 to 1900.1 The earlier range seems most likely. —RB

  1. For the carbon-14 dating results, see the Appendix. ↩︎