Paracas Funerary Mantles: Offerings for Life – 2015
- Paracas funerary mantles: Offerings for Life
- Who Were The Paracas?
- The Wari Kayán Cemetery and Its discoverer
- What is a funerary bundle?
- Offerings for the Afterlife
- “Reading” the Images
- Severed heads, trophy heads
- Paracas textile art
- Three styles of embroidery
- A miniature outfit
- Headband: Turban I
- Headband: Turban II
- Headband: Turban III
- Turban-cloth: Two-headed serpents
- Skirt: Big-Eyed Being
- Uncu tunic with felines: Big-eyed Being
- Short poncho: Orcas
- Short poncho: Feline-Man
- Short poncho with fringes: Big-Eyed Being
- Attire of a Paracas chief
- Opening a funerary bundle from the Wari Kayán Necrópolis
- Mantles for the afterfile
- Bibliographic references
- Credits
Mythical Beings and severed heads.
Mythical Beings and severed heads.
Mythical Beings and severed heads.
Mythical Beings and severed heads.
Mythical Beings and severed heads.
Mythical Beings and severed heads.
Severed heads, trophy heads
One of the most unsettling images of Paracas Necrópolis iconography is a half-man, half-animal creature that holds a severed human head by the hair. In some cases this figure is carrying a wide-bladed triangular knife or other weapon. Severed heads also adorn the borders of some tunics and mantles, and as appendages on the headdresses, mouths, extremities and belts of a wide variety of figures.
Some experts claim that these heads are war trophies, and therefore the figure holding them is a victorious warrior. Others affirm that they represent ritual sacrifices made to the deities to ensure the fertility of the land. In other words, the heads were not the heads of enemies but those of the ancestors or predecessors that symbolized the supernatural forces invoked to ensure the continuation of the world of the living.
