374 Philip Ainsworth Means, 



lence and the diversity, as well as some of the distinguishing 

 motifs, of the Proto-Chimu pottery. As we have said, "por- 

 traits" continued to be produced in this period, and we find 

 them in both black ware and red. It is often difficult definitely 

 to assign a "portrait" to one or the other of the two possible 

 periods. 



Still other striking products of this period were the textiles 

 and the stucco wall-decorations derived from them. In Plate 

 XII, Figures i and 2, we see reproductions of textiles of this 

 period. Brighter colored cloths with animal and human figures 

 combined with conventional ones were also fairly common. 

 There is, however, nothing especially new about them, and we 

 would better take up the very remarkable architectural achieve- 

 ments of the period. Only by referring to Rivero and von 

 Tschudi and to Squier can one get a really adequate view of the 

 wonderful city of the Chimu kings. ^^ Great walls thirty feet in 

 height and ten feet thick at base by five feet thick near the top 

 are distinguishing features of one type of ruins of the Chimu 

 period. Another type does not have a tapering cross-section. 

 Adobe is the usual material, of course, and it was one which 

 lent itself admirably to the construction of a huge city of dwell- 

 ings, canals, reservoirs, gardens and palaces. The interior sur- 

 faces of some of the walls are decorated with arabesques in 

 stucco which arouse hearty admiration in the beholder. Squier 

 gives numerous pictures of the various specimens of arabesque. 

 We will content ourselves with noting three main classes of 

 arabesque. The simplest type is that of the three specimens 

 shown by Squier (1877, p. 154 f.), as consisting of lozenge- 

 shaped depressions, or square ones, let into the surface of the 

 wall in such a way as to form a lattice or checker-board pattern. 

 In the same class, but a bit more elaborate, is the design which 

 consists of a raised pattern in the form of a double line of 

 stair-sign design.^* The second type, while still largely geo- 

 metric, is obviously derived directly from textiles of the type 

 shown in Plate XII, Figure i. The technique, as in the case 

 of the simplest type, is of the square-edged variety. ^^ It com- 

 bines, like the textile-type with which it is related, a mingling 



^^ Rivero y von Tschudi, 1851, pp. 268 flf. ; Squier, 1877, pp. 135-192. 

 ^^ Cf. Middendorf, 1894-95, II, pp. 375 ff. 

 " Squier, 1877, p. 137. 



