Visual database

Three styles of narrow bands, woven in variants of a triple-cloth structure, with reported provenience in the Ocucaje Basin of the lower Ica Valley. (a) TM 91.855.

Three styles of narrow bands, woven in variants of a triple-cloth structure, with reported provenience in the Ocucaje Basin of the lower Ica Valley. Bands TM 91.878 and 879 are reported to be from the same burial. (b) TM 91.878.

Three styles of narrow bands, woven in variants of a triple-cloth structure, with reported provenience in the Ocucaje Basin of the lower Ica Valley. Bands TM 91.878 and 879 are reported to be from the same burial. (c) TM 91.879.

Ceramic mask allegedly excavated in the site of Chongos in the Pisco Valley. The nose-like central flange protrudes 11 cm above the domed surface. A series of perforations along the rim of the mask would facilitate its attachment to a costume or mortuary bundle. BMA 64.94.

(a) Close-knotted band reported to have been collected on the surface of the Arena Blanca Sector of the Paracas site, TM 1961.37.1B. 

(b) Close-knotted panels separated by sections of unknotted yarns to form an openwork fabric typical of hairnets found in both Cavernas and Necropolis tombs. TM 91.1066.

Close-knotted panel with drawstrings at one end; the other end, now incomplete, probably had a similar arrangement, creating a hammock-shaped wrap. Fabricated with much heavier yarns than analogous objects known from the Paracas site, this knotted "headdress" seems too bulky to have been worn in life. It is alleged to be part of an Ocucaje gravelot transitional from Phase 10 to early Nasca 1. TM 91.935.

Probably a headcloth, this cotton fabric combines plain weave, in some places with discontinuous wefts creating a pattern of short slits, with areas where pairs of warps are crossed before wefts are inserted to create an openwork image of the rayed head. The embroidery is in a distinctive technique that uses diagonal stitching in both figure and ground areas to create Broad Line images. TM 91.1009.

Fragments of an embroidered border from a small mantle or possibly a headcloth, found among the textiles packed close to the body in Paracas Necropolis Burial 352 and catalogued as Specimen 115. MRI DB-7.

"False Head" construction from the top of a mortuary bundle from the Ocucaje Basin, with several of its original components. These include bound rolls of cotton fiber, a warp-patterned band, a tapestry band, and the "mask" panel with its unwoven warp extending from the top like hair and wrapped by the headbands. TM 91.890.