Another distraction...

This time, the distraction comes in the form of a Peruvian baby sling in the British Museum.

The colours are in the right range and it's a beautiful woven item. However, the main reason it caught my attention was due to the little carved ornaments. Which, according to the blurb, make a soft sound to soothe the infant as the carrier walks and moves.

Here're some closer looks at those ornaments. They look like bone to me, but they could also be made from shell. The blurb doesn't specify the ornaments' material.

Aren't they beautiful? I like how each one is unique, in pattern as well as their size and shape. Some look older, some newer. Some might have come off, and newer ones made to replace them. All that time spent for a baby, or maybe a series of babies, maybe the baby carrier was passed down through carrier to baby. Maybe when the textile wore out, the wearer would transfer the old ornaments to the next carrier.

So many questions, but no answers.

It gives me ideas for how a shaman might wear bones that don't look so... bony.