Pre-Columbian, Peru, Huari / Wari culture, ca. 500 to 1000 CE. This is a textile woven in the slit tapestry technique depicting six mythological beings. It's threads are vivid colors: red, brown, ochre, cream, and umber; there are alternating red panels. It may have been part of a man's tunic. Textiles were some of the most valuable items in Wari culture and they probably exacted them as tribute from the peoples they conquered. This makes it difficult for archaeologists to identify where these beautiful objects were originally woven, because they travelled so much around the Wari Empire. It seems that Wari textiles, like the Inca that followed them, were woven on a wide, rectangular frame loom. They were warped on the short direction so the warp would run horizontally when worn as a tunic. Most of these are made with either white cotton or camelid fiber (alpaca) or some combination of both. The textiles that are preserved today are often from the desert areas between the Pacific Coast and the Andes; the Wari capital, in the highlands, was too wet to preseve cloth through the centuries, and as a result, textile fragments are quite rare. The panel has been sewn in modern times onto a red backing cloth, which is in turn sewn onto a larger brown one. Size of panel: 21-1/4" L x 2-1/4" H (54 cm x 5.7 cm).

Provenance: Ex-Private New York Collection, ex-R Gill Orlando FL.

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#110799

Expected wear in spots, otherwise excellent.