Object Name: Belt or head wrapping

Culture: Nasca culture

Place of Origin: South coast of Peru

Date/Era: Early Intermediate Period, circa 200-500 CE

Medium/Materials: Camelid hair (Z-Spun, S-plied), dyed, warp and weft; five-color warp-faced double-cloth, tubular weft with oblique interlacing

Dimensions: 528 x 4 cm

Credit Line: Fowler Museum at UCLA. Gift of the Wellcome Trust.

Accession Number: X65.11893

Three components exist with all selvages.

This long narrow band or head wrapping with stylized bird designs is exquisitely woven in a warp-faced tubular double-cloth using five colors to create two distinct layers. The band, which is over seventeen-feet long, is strong and thick due to the number of colored warps carried in the center of the tube and used only when needed for the design. The selvage ends of the tubular band are attached to the chevron-designed oblique interlaced braids, which may have been more flexible for the final tying of the band around the head.

Source: Elena Phipps, The Peruvian Four-Selvaged Cloth. Ancient Threads / New Directions. Fowler Museum Textile Series, No. 12, Los Angeles, 2013