News in Brief
British Museum puts Palestinian heritage on view
Middle East Monitor – The Palestinian art of tatreez (embroidery) is on display at the British Museum in London.
Making up part of the Islamic Gallery, thobes – traditional dresses – are being exhibited to reflect “the powerful and unique expression of Palestinian women’s skill, creativity and attachment to the land,” the Palestinian Mission in the UK said on its Facebook page.
The British Museum described the items as: “The festive dresses of the villages near Gaza were notable for the huge chevrons and ‘cypress tree’ motifs with which they were decorated.”
An ancient artform and means of expression for Palestinians, “The practice of tatreez originated in Palestine over 3,000 years ago. It is a unique form of embroidery that brings together colored threads in various patterns to create traditional motifs. Motifs were area-specific, as well as symbolic of important events, such as a wedding or pregnancy.”
Tatreez is a recognizable form of Palestinian heritage and culture and is noted as a unique Palestinian artform.
Archaeologists in Peru find adolescent mummy
REUTERS – Peruvian archaeologists unearthed a more than 1,000-year-old mummy on the outskirts of the modern capital, in the latest discovery dating back to pre-Inca times.
The mummy was probably an adolescent and found in an underground tomb wrapped in a funerary bundle, along with ceramics, rope and bits of skin and hair.
The mummified adolescent was found in a “good state of conservation,” said archaeologist Yomira Huaman, in charge of the Cajamarquilla research project affiliated with the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.
While best known for the mountain-top Inca royal retreat of Machu Picchu, Peru was home to various pre-Hispanic cultures that thrived in the centuries before the Inca empire rose to power, mainly along the country’s central coast and in the Andes.