**Originally Listed At $900**

Pre-Columbian, South Coast Peru, Paracas culture, ca. 500 to 300 BCE. A petite textile fragment composed of tightly woven camelid (alpaca or llama wool) fibers in hues of orange, brown, blue, green, cream, sage, and fuchsia. The textile fragment depicts a highly stylized flying warrior figure wearing a loincloth between delineated legs as well as a belt bearing three disembodied trophy heads. The face of the warrior presents with red eyes atop an orange stripe and wears a brown headdress with three projecting tabs. Mounted atop a museum-quality display fabric. Size (textile): 2.75" L x 1.75" W (7 cm x 4.4 cm); (display fabric): 17" L x 14.5" W (43.2 cm x 36.8 cm).

Little is known about the Paracas people, and what little we do know comes from a 1920s archaeological excavation of the Paracas Cavernas, shaft tombs containing multiple burials, many of which contained ceramic vessels, probably for holding offerings or provisioning the dead in the afterlife. The iconography of the Paracas people is linear and stylistic, based on formal figures whose species, when zoomorphic, often cannot be identified. Motifs on their textiles mirror those of their ceramics that they used to wrap their dead and probably represent gods or mythical figures of power.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-Arte Primitivo Gallery, New York, New York, USA

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to recent increases of shipments being seized by Australian & German customs (even for items with pre-UNESCO provenance), we will no longer ship most antiquities and ancient Chinese art to Australia & Germany. For categories of items that are acceptable to ship to Australia or Germany, please contact us directly or work with your local customs brokerage firm.

Display stands not described as included/custom in the item description are for photography purposes only and will not be included with the item upon shipping.

#148268

This is a fragment of a larger textile composition. Losses to peripheral threads as shown. Loosening and fraying to some interior and peripheral threads, with light fading to original coloration. Iconography is still visible.