The belt of purple and white shell wampum has a warp of leather thong and a weft of linen thread or vegetable twine.

The belt was woven on a bow loom. It has 8 warp strands, producing a belt of 7 rows. The belt is 7 wampum wide and 164 long, making a theoretical total of 1148 shell beads.

The design consists of 6 pairs of parallel lines of purple wampum, with pairs divided by a line of white wampum two beads wide. The four pairs of parallel lines in the centre of the belt run in the same diagonal direction-- the pairs of lines at both ends run in the opposing direction.

Based upon historical knowledge about wampum and its date of collection, this belt was made between 1600 and 1865.

This item is part of a larger collection donated to the British Museum by the English ethnologist Henry Christy between 1860 and 1869.

Unknown artist, wampum belt. Currently in the British Museum, Am.2767. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 24677.

This record was created as part of a Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures (GRASAC) research trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum and British Museum, December 8-22 2007, funded by a grant from the International Opportunities fund of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Researchers present: Heidi Bohaker (HB), John Borrows (JB), Lindsay Borrows (LB), Alan Corbiere (AC), Henrietta Lidchi (HL), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Bruce Morito (BM), Ruth Phillips (RP), Anne De Stecher (AS), Cory Willmott (CW).