peru, south coast, paracas culture
In the funerary bundles recovered from Paracas burials, layer upon layer of
Mantle with birds
handwoven garments wrapped each body. The largest and most impressive
c. 300–100 bc
of the Paracas textiles is the mantle, which was worn as a shoulder cloth.
Camelid fiber
In this example, two pieces of dark blue cloth were seamed together to form
51M × 110 in. ( 130.8 × 279.4 cm)
the ground cloth, onto which red squares and a wide, bird‑patterned bor‑
The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., in memory of John O’Boyle, 197 2.4.McD
der were embroidered. As in other ancient Andean textiles, the vibrantly colored yarns were spun from the hair of the llama, alpaca, or vicuña, animals of the Camelidae family native to the Andean highlands. The embroidered birds may represent male condors as suggested by their ruff of feathers (shown as a white collar) and outspread wings. The birds are repeated with a change in vertical orientation in the squares and a change in both orientation and scale in the border, characteristic Andean textile devices for achieving variety with a single motif.
ancient and native american
3121-02 DMA handbook Ancient [RCP 10-7].indd 25
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