Textile Fragment with Skeletal Figure
Paracas
1 of 2
Object Label
The backward-bent pose of this skeletal figure with long, streaming hair and a fan or knife in its hand is associated with sacrificial victims and death. At the throat, a square-shaped wound suggests a decapitation. Alternatively, the figure has been interpreted as the seminal being of a mythic transformation sequence in which supernatural beings evolve into more complex, composite figures such as the Plant Beings seen nearby.
Caption
Paracas. Textile Fragment with Skeletal Figure, 100 B.C.E.–1 C.E.. Cotton, camelid fibers, frag. a: 7 1/2 x 8 3/4 in. (19.1 x 22.2 cm) frag. b: 6 3/16 x 4 1/2 in. (15.7 x 11.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund, 33.570a-b. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Culture
Title
Textile Fragment with Skeletal Figure
Date
100 B.C.E.–1 C.E.
Geography
Place found: South Coast, Peru
Medium
Cotton, camelid fibers
Classification
Dimensions
frag. a: 7 1/2 x 8 3/4 in. (19.1 x 22.2 cm) frag. b: 6 3/16 x 4 1/2 in. (15.7 x 11.4 cm)
Credit Line
A. Augustus Healy Fund
Accession Number
33.570a-b
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