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
Mantle: Mythical agricultural being.
Funerary mantle. Discontinuous warp and weft weave, cross-knit looping and embroidery in the Block Color style; camelid fiber. Mummy Nº 378, object Nº 8. 252 x 109 cm (INC-MNAAHP, RT-3554).
Funerary mantle (detail). Discontinuous warp and weft weave, cross-knit looping and embroidery in the Block Color style; camelid fiber. Mummy Nº 378, object Nº 8. 252 x 109 cm (INC-MNAAHP, RT-3554).
Discontinuous warp and weft plain weave technique.
Mantle’s central motif.
Mantle: Mythical Agricultural Being
This mantle so-called “of the staircases” was woven with warp and weft threads of different colors that are interconnected at the edges of the designs. The mantle’s side borders are embroidered in the Block Color style with a figure that is repeated 16 times. The figure is shown standing, in side view, facing front and looking up. It is wearing a loincloth, a tunic and anklets and its face is painted. In its hands it holds a mace and a staff, and four serrated appendages emerge from its face and end in severed human heads. The body is shaped like a lima bean, which associates this mythical being with agricultural fertility.