What a surprise to come upon this display at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. According to the accompanying commentary,
"This extraordinary object is associated with Powhatan (died 1618) who was chief of the Powhatan Indians that occupied Virginia at the time the Jamestown settlement was founded in 1607. He is best known today as the father of Pocahontas.
Powhatan's Mantle may have been acquired by John Tradescant the Younger during his travels to Virginia in 1637...
Despite its name, Powhatan's Mantle was probably a wall-hanging, perhaps from a place of worship. It is likely that while hanging on a wall in the Ashmolean, shells from the lower section were removed by visitors who kept them as souvenirs."
You can't imagine the odd feeling I had, seeing an artifact from a well-known figure in my state's history, an individual studied by students at my school. It was like bumping into your mailman halfway around the world.
