TEXTILE FABRICS OF ANCIENT PERU. 



By Willtam H. Holmes. 



The occasiou for tbe preparation of tbis paper was fnrDisbed by tbe 

 request of Mr. E. A. Barber, of Pbiladelpbia, tbat I sbould make a 

 brief study of a small but select series of Peruvian fabrics belonging 

 to him, and forwarded to me for examination. In prosecuting this 

 work I had occasion to examine the tine collections of ancient Peruvian 

 textiles recently acquired by the Bureau of Ethnology. These fabrics, 

 so far as is known, are representative of the best period of aboriginal 

 textile art, and are conceded by all to be marvels of execution and de- 

 sign. 



But little is known chronologically of the various groups of art prod- 

 ucts obtained from the burial places of the .coast belt of Peru, but 

 most of them belong in all probability to what may be called the Inca- 

 rial epoch. Little definite information has been gained in regard to the 

 relationships of the people, racial or political, with the historic na- 

 tions, and for the present we must content ourselves with a study of 

 their remarkable art remains. Many of the more cultured American 

 nations were skilled in the weaver's art, as we learn from the accounts 

 of the Conquerors, yet with a few exceptions extremely' meager traces 

 of the fabrics themselves have been preserved to our time. The an- 

 cient inhabitants of Peru, as is customary with many peoples of corre- 

 si^ondiug grades of culture, buried a multitude of useful and valued 

 objects along with the dead, and it happened that the dry sands in 

 which the tombs were excavated, preserved, through a process of des- 

 iccation, not only the bodies but most of the fragile articles and deli- 

 cate fabrics that accompanied them. In the Sierra and upland regions, 

 where the conditions of burial were not so favorable, but sUght traces of 

 the more perishable articles appear to have been preserved. 



By far the greater portion of cloths and richly ornamented garments 

 were wrapped about the bodies of the dead and may now be unfolded, 

 layer after layer, piece after piece, from the half-decayed mummies. 

 Additional fabrics are contained in rolls, baskets, nets, and vases. 



In Fig. 1 we have an example of burial given by Eeiss and Stiibel,^ 

 showing the aj^pearance of the mummy pack and the character of the 

 accompanying articles. The various articles are intended to be shown 

 ' Eeiss and Stiibel : The Necropolis of Ancon, Berlin, 1880. 



