A Survey of Ancient Peruvian Art, 351 



The foregoing remarks are meant to 'convey the impression 

 that Proto-Nasca designs do occur on both pottery and embroid- 

 ered textiles. Since this is so, the writer finds it impossible to 

 imagine how anyone can assume, as some have done, that they 

 were not made by the same people. Differences between the tex- 

 tile designs and the pottery designs do exist, of course, but in the 

 writer's opinion, they may all be explained by the difference in 

 medium, the technique of pottery decoration not unnaturally 

 causing results divergent from those produced by textile 

 embroidery. 



Without pausing at present to discuss the transition from 

 Proto-Nasca art to Tiahuanaco II art, we will now turn our 

 attention to the region of Lake Titicaca and study the early 

 cultures in that area. 



2. A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF TIAHUANACO II ART. 



Hitherto in our study we have had to deal mainly with pottery 

 and textiles. In the case of Tiahuanaco II art stone adds itself 

 to the other two as an important art-medium. If it were our 

 purpose to follow Tiahuanaco II art in all its ramifications, we 

 should have to consider the bronze work of northern Argentina 

 as well. The chief media, jthen, for the art of the exceedingly 

 important period we are about to study are: in the highlands, 

 stone and pottery; in the coast-regions, pottery and textiles. 



We will first examine the Tiahuanaco II art with a view to 

 setting forth its content and characteristics. The reader is urged 

 to turn to Plate VII which shows the chief figure of the great 

 monolithic gateway at Tiahuanaco. The Plates in Posnansky's 

 work on this site should likewise be consulted. ^^ For want of a 

 better term we have referred to this figure as the "Weeping- 

 God.'' Variations of it occur over a huge area, and in stone, 

 pottery, textiles and bronze. Sometimes the ''tears" are lack- 

 ing, but there is always some other feature to identify the several 

 variations. We will now minutely examine the Weeping God 

 on the great monolithic gateway. He is a short stocky personage 

 with a large head which is almost square. Around the head is 

 a sort of frame; the inner band of the frame is adorned with a 

 series of the fT" sign which we shall find often later on. 



'' Posnansky, 1914, Plates LXV-LXXXIV. 



