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
Funerary mantle. Plain weave, cross-knit looping and embroidery in the Block Color style; camelid fiber. Mummy Nº 319, object Nº 9. 277,5 x 140 cm (INC-MNAAHP, RT-1444).
Embroidery in the Block Color style.
Funerary mantle (detail). Plain weave, cross-knit looping and embroidery in the Block Color style; camelid fiber. Mummy Nº 319, object Nº 9. 277,5 x 140 cm (INC-MNAAHP, RT-1444).
Mantle’s central motif.
Mantle: Shaman of the Orcas
The motif in this mantle, repeated 44 times in the central field and 22 on the borders, represents a mythical being, probably a shaman, with the attributes of a marine creature. The figure has a large mask made of two orca silhouettes facing each other, with two appendages ending in the same animal. It is wearing a tunic and fringed skirt and has a trapezoid-shaped pendant hanging around its neck. In its hands the figure holds a triangular knife with an orca-shaped handle and a severed head with mouth sewn shut with cactus needles. Girdling its waist is a skirt with a band of orcas.