Proto-Nasca. <em>Headcloth?, Fragment or Mantle, Fragment</em>, 100-200 C.E. Cotton, camelid fiber, a: 95 11/16 x 5 1/2 in.  (243.0 x 14.0 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Alfred W. Jenkins Fund, 34.1542a-e (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 34.1542a-e_acetate_bw.jpg)

Headcloth?, Fragment or Mantle, Fragment

Artist:Proto-NascaParacas Necropolis

Medium: Cotton, camelid fiber

Geograhical Locations:

Dates:100-200 C.E.

Dimensions: a: 95 11/16 x 5 1/2 in. (243.0 x 14.0 cm) b: 15 3/8 x10 1/16 in. (39.0 x 25.5 cm) c: 14 3/16 x 10 1/16 in. (36 x 25.5 cm) d: 13 3/4 x 10 1/16 in. (35 x 25.5 cm) e: 14 3/16 x 9 13/16 in. (36.0 x 25.0 cm)

Collections:

Accession Number: 34.1542a-e

Image: 34.1542a-e_acetate_bw.jpg,

Catalogue Description:
Size: adult; probable wearer: undetermined or male? The textile is woven with a vertical cotton warp and a cotton weft and decorated with camelid fiber embroidery. The remnants of the field and panel are a dark brown plain weave. Decorative embroidery in red, green blue, yellow, khaki and undyed beige runs down a panel at the center of the textile and on four L-shaped corner borders. The missing field cloth may or may not have had an overall pattern. Two sides of the central panel and the inner side of the corner borders have a rick-rack-like border. Mary Frame has noted that the style of this mantle is Paracas Necropolis "block color," with a panel and border design of alternating human figures rendered in blues, browns and yellows; each figure has either a swollen or dented chest. Serpentine streamers ending in animal heads emanate from the figures, which also wear elaborate garments and ornaments including short tunics, arm and leg bands, spondylous shell pendants, and gold head ornaments with danglers in front of the ears. The figures also carry what are probably ceremonial fans. A complete series of figures is visible on the central panel.

Brooklyn Museum