Andean textiles

Kañari Quechua musicians wearing woven mantles, Ecuador

Andean textiles represent a continuing textile tradition spanning at least ten thousand years. Fiberwork has been found in Guitarrero Cave, Peru dates back to 8000 BCE. Beginning with non-loom, twined cotton fabric, this textile tradition expanded to include alpaca and llama wool. Today Andean weavers are known worldwide for their skills and rich traditions.

Origins

The Norte Chico civilization were the earliest known users of textiles in the Andes. They wove them of cotton. They were also the first to use the Quipu. The Quipu is a series of knotted strings that were used for accounting, using base 10, and also possibly as a binary logographic system of writing.

Quilted armour

Chancay weaving implement
1000-1400 CE, Lombards Museum

Quilted armour of the Andeans was much lighter, more comfortable, and almost as protective as European steel plate armour.

Loom

Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, Inca weaving

The Andeans used the back strap loom.

The Andeans had very advanced technology in textile technology, about as advanced as Eurasians were in metal technology.

Gallery

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  Mantle ("the Paracas Textile"), 100-300 C.E., 38.121, Brooklyn Museum

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  Chavin painted textile (detail), 600-400 BC Lombards Museum
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  Paracas mantle, 200 BCE–200 CE. LACMA collections
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  Paracas mantle 200 CE Larco Museum, Lima-Perú
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  Nazca-Paracas mantle, cotton and camelid fiber, 1-100 CE, Brooklyn Museum
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  proto-Nazca, Manto with border of dancers, 100 BC-200 AD Lombards Museum
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  late Moche 600-900 A.D. Lombards Museum
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  Huari mantle, Gilcrease Museum
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  Wari tunic, tie-dyed piecework, 750-950 CE, Textile Museum
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  Chancay doll with feathered tunic, 1100-1400 AD, Lombards Museum
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  Chimu slit tapestry, 1000–1476 CE, pelicans and tuna fish design in camelid fiber
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  "Tupa Inca tunic", c. 1550, Dumbarton Oaks
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  Incan quipu, Larco Museum
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  Colonial Peruvian wall hanging, 17th-18th century
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  Contemporary Kañari weaver with a backstrap loom, Peru
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  Quechua people wearing contemporary weavings, Sucré, Bolivia

See also

• Mapuche textiles

Sources

• Phipps, Elena; et al. (2004). The colonial Andes: tapestries and silverwork, 1530-1830. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 1588391310. 
• Stone-Miller, Rebecca. Art of the Andes: from Chavín to Inca. London: Thames and Hudson, 2002. ISBN 978-0-500-20363-7.

External links

• The Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco