Table Runner

Flat-woven textile with checkerboard pattern and interlocking lozenge motifs in black and white

This fine, flat-woven textile with checkerboard and geometric lozenge motifs and a narrow white border is finished with fringed ends, suggesting that it was intended as a decorative textile rather than as a garment.  The geometric vocabulary is strongly consistent with Amazigh textile traditions of Morocco. Geometric forms such as diamonds, crosses, zigzags and related combinations are widespread in Moroccan Amazigh weaving. Individual geometric designs with the same geometric forms occur across many different Moroccan weaving traditions; with each village assigning its own symbolic interpretations of specific designs

  • The Peace Corps had an active role in supporting Moroccan weaving and artisan cooperatives. The Smithsonian's documentation of its 2011 Peace Corps program in Morocco notes that Peace Corps volunteers worked with weaving traditions and cooperatives, including Amazigh weaving communities in the Middle Atlas and southern Morocco.

  • Title: Table Runner

  • Date: 2014

  • Geography: Atlas Mountain region, Morocco

  • Medium: Cotton, handwoven flat weave; geometric supplementary/weft

  • Dimensions: H. 37 in.  W. 18 in.

  • Provenance: Purchased at a Peace Corp craft fair in Rabat

  • Inventory Number:  MO.06