One of the oldest handcrafts of African origin in the United States is the hand-woven winnowing sieve, a shallow basket that was used during the Colonia Era to separate the rice seed from its chaff. Made from indigenous bulrush, sweetgrass is a strong yet supple marsh grass that thrives in the sandy soil of the coastal regions of the US South Atlantic.

Gullah sweetgrass basket

One of the oldest handcrafts of African origin in the United States is the hand-woven winnowing sieve, a shallow basket that was used during the Colonia Era to separate the rice seed from its chaff. Made from indigenous bulrush, sweetgrass is a strong yet supple marsh grass that thrives in the sandy soil of the coastal regions of the US South Atlantic.

culture native craft salt marsh coast

Author(s)Jane Hawkey
Author CompanyIntegration and Application Network
Date Created2014-12-31
AlbumHuman > Culture/Archaeology
TypeSymbol
Project(s)Synthesis of South Atlantic Ecosystem Health Indicators
Dimensions444 x 500
Filesize9.0 kB (svg)   43.1 kB (png)
Number of Downloads561
Filetype(s) SVG     PNG
LicenseAttribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Required AttributionJane Hawkey, Integration and Application Network (ian.umces.edu/media-library)