https://www.tartandictionary.org/tags/artefact/Recent content in Artefact on Tartan DictionaryHugoenMon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tartandictionary.org/posts/maasai-shuka/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tartandictionary.org/posts/maasai-shuka/<p>The dictionary holds a set of <strong>Masai Shuka artefact tartans</strong> — checks read from the woolly red blankets worn across Kenya and northern Tanzania. Our interest is the one this dictionary always has: the <strong>pattern and its lineage</strong> — how the tartan check's grammar met a much older Maasai colour tradition and combined into a genuinely <strong>new set of setts</strong>. Their story is not a Highland one, and it is worth telling properly. This retelling draws on Paukwa's <em>KE Textiles</em> series essay, <a href="https://www.paukwa.or.ke/story-series/ketextiles/threads-of-tradition-the-tale-of-the-maasai-shuka/"><em>Threads of Tradition: The Tale of the Maasai Shuka</em></a>, and on the sources behind our own records, below.</p>