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Frame, Mary, "Ancient Peruvian Mantles, 300 B.C.–A.D. 200"

Posted By: TimMa
Frame, Mary, "Ancient Peruvian Mantles, 300 B.C.–A.D. 200"

Frame, Mary, "Ancient Peruvian Mantles, 300 B.C.–A.D. 200"
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art | 1995 | ISBN: N/A | English | PDF | 23 pages | 4.02 Mb

Mantles, the rectangular wrapping cloths found on two-thousand-year-old funerary bundles from the south coast, are impressive demonstrations of the ancient Peruvian arts of needle and loom. Often bordered or intricately patterned, they carry a detailed expression of the ancient imagery in large figures or a full range of symmetrical and color patterns in repeated small figures. Miniature and small mantles are sometimes included within the onionlike layers of cloth that wrap the deceased or accompany the buried bundle. A few gigantic mantles seem to relate to the girth of exceptionally large bundles rather than to the body size of humans. The range of mantle dimensions suggests these garments have a special relation to the funerary context in which they are found, though many could have been worn before being reused as offerings. They are made in the natural hues of cotton or camelid fiber (wool) or dyed in a range of strong colors. Red, the color of blood, is the most conspicuous of the applied colors, a seemingly appropriate choice for decorated cloth accompanying burials.

The mantles and related textiles in this exhibition represent works encountered at two major, but quite different, archaeological sites: Ocucaje in the lower lea Valley and the Necropolis of Wari Kayan (also known as the Paracas Necropolis) on the Paracas Peninsula. The fabrics span a five-century period, from 300 B.C. to a.d. 200,1 with the earlier, more varied mantles reflecting styles from Ocucaje and the later, embroidered mantles reflecting those of the Wari Kayan Necropolis.

Frame, Mary, "Ancient Peruvian Mantles, 300 B.C.–A.D. 200"