Blanket (uldebe or gammba)
- Culture
- Dogon artist
- Date
- mid-20th century
- Material
- Cotton
- Classification
- Coverings & hangings, textiles
- Collection
- Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
- Current Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 117 x 62 1/2 in. (297.2 x 158.8 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of William C. Siegmann
- Rights
- Contact Us
- Object Number
- 1162:2010
NOTES
This indigo-dyed blanket is an example of the most classic type owned by Dogon individuals of high rank. For millennia, indigo from the Indigofera plant family has been elemental to dyeing cloth and was spread widely through extensive trade networks. Indigo’s use in West and North Africa predates the substance’s export to Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Fragments of indigo-dyed textiles, excavated from Mali’s Bandiagara Escarpment region, have been radiocarbon dated to the 11th and 12th centuries. Tellem peoples, who preceded the Dogon as inhabitants of this region, produced those early examples.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.