FEATURE
98
FIG. 21 (above): Pair of ear
ornaments. Chimu, North
Coast, Peru. AD 1100–1470.
Shell, stone, wood. H: 9.5 cm.
Linden-Museum Stuttgart, inv.
M32248a and b.
© Linden-Museum Stuttgart.
Photo: A. Dreyer.
The Peruvian North Coast, home to the brilliant
artworks of the Moche, Wari, Lambayeque, and
Chimu, also have many lesser-known treasures,
among them the fi rst quipu, or counting devices,
which consisted of fabric cords with series of knots
tied in them. Also found here was the world’s oldest
indigo-dyed textile, which dates to 4000 BC.12 Huaca
Prieta, a site that dates to approximately 3500
BC (predating the earliest pyramids of Egypt by almost
a millennium), is considered part of one of the
oldest textile cultures and was the source of an iconography
that would mark and infl uence the textile
designs of all of its northern Andean descendants.
The Moche are remembered for their bellicose
culture, which arose around the fi rst century BC,
but they are equally famed for the fi gurative ceramics
they produced, which included depictions of ferocious
and heavily armed warriors (fi g. 13), often
dragging naked prisoners along, as well as their
remarkably naturalistic portrait vessels that sometimes
depict scarred faces. Few textiles have survived
from this northern region, since the climate
and environment, where fl ooding is frequent, is less
conducive to their preservation than circumstances
further south. Moche textiles generally display geometric
designs and are usually made of cotton, with
only occasional wool examples.
More is known about the textiles of the subsequent
Wari culture, which rose to dominate the entire
region after the decline of the Moche. The Wari
wove large tunics with extremely stylized and codifi
ed designs. These were even less fi gurative than
those of the Moche, and the primarily geometric
iconography is abstract. Some of their most remarkable
creations are the small four-pointed hats they
produced (fi g. 17), which is also associated with the
southern extension of the culture into Tiwanaku,
Bolivia. Astonishing examples, extraordinary for
the diversity of the colors and designs they display,
feature motifs that range from the completely abstract
to the fi gurative.
Around AD 800, as the Wari Empire was going
into decline, the Lambayeque culture rose into
prominence. The Lambayeque developed an iconography
that was completely different from that
of their neighbors and predecessors. Their clothing
consisted of large and ample cotton tunics with naturalistic
iconography and with sometimes surprising
renderings of scenes of common people or small
three-dimensional elements that emerge from the
fabric, such as fringe, pompoms, or small fl orets.
The frequent use of the color green is also noteworthy
and unique in Pre-Columbian textile production.
The Chimu populated the North Coast between
AD 1200 and 1450. They were master weavers and
executed the techniques of tapestry, gauze, brocade,
and double-woven fabric with great virtuosity. Despite
this, they achieved their greatest recognition
for their featherwork. Used on tunics or brightly
colored head ornaments, each feather was fi rst
looped onto a string to form a fringe-like composition,
rows of which were then basted onto a piece
of cotton. The Chimu were also the fi rst to decorate
their tapestries and embroideries with isolated depictions
of full fi gures.
Finally came the Inca, the last Pre-Hispanic culture
of this part of the Americas, who constitute a
major chapter in the history of the Andes, due both
to the scale of their empire and its longevity. As part