Paracas Textiles

    The Paracas Textiles were found in necropolis in Peru in the 1920s.  The necropolis held 420 bodies that had been mummified and wrapped in embroidered textiles of the Paracas culture in 200 to 300 BCE. The cloth as well as the dimensional border were created using different techniques both with perfect reverse ability. The textile contains a vast amount of information about the people who lived in ancient Peru it has a great age and delicacy, the colors are brilliant, and it has lots of tiny details amazingly intact.
Nasca, Mantle ("The Paracas Textile"), 100-300 C.E., cotton, camelid fiber, 58-1/4 x 24-1/2 inches / 148 x 62.2 cm, found south coast, Paracas, Peru (Brooklyn Museum)
Textile
    
     Except for three border figures these figures are duplicated on the back it would be as if you were flipping the image in a mirror. They appear in back view on one side of the cloth therefore making sure there is a front and back to the textile. It is a design of 32 geometric faces, and it's created by warp wrapping this is a technique with colored fleece and is wound around sections of cotton warp threads before weaving. The cloth and the border have different color palettes because they are created a different time. The third layer of the border is colorful veneers of wool "cross looping." This involved the inner cotton cores of looping or weaving. Cross looping resembles knitting which can be done with one needle. In areas where the threat is broken, it is possible to glimpse the underlying cotton the curtain is usually off light and the world that is being weaved in bright tones. 
Warp wrapping (diagram by Lois Martin)
Cross-Looping
   
    The combination of materials is extensive trading relationships cotton was grown in coastal valleys and wool came from camelids such as a llama alpaca or vicuna. They typically live at high altitudes in the Andres mountains. In this picture the llama has a ton of vegetables on it this represents the pre-Columbian people had no wheeled vehicles for transport the llama carried goods between region. 
Alpaca herd, Ausangate, Peru (photo: Marturius, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Alpaca herd


Frame, Mary. 2003–4. “What the Women Were Wearing: A Deposit of Early Nasca Dresses and Shawls from Cahuachi, Peru.” Textile Museum Journal, 42/43:13–53.

Paul, Anne. 1990. “Paracas ritual attire: symbols of authority in ancient Peru,” Civilization of the American Indian series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Paul, Anne. 1991. Paracas art & architecture : object and context in South Coastal Peru, 1st ed. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.

Silverman, Helaine. 2002. “Differentiating Paracas Necropolis and Early Nasca Textiles,”  Andean archaeology II: Art, Landscape, and Society, edited by W. H. Isbell and H. Silverman. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 71–105.


Comments

  1. Lily EdgingtonDecember 13, 2020 at 9:36 PM

    I found it very interesting that people had been mummified and wrapped in the textiles. I wonder if it had a certain meaning or significance.

    ReplyDelete

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