Object Name: Section of a woven band

Culture: Nasca culture

Place of Origin: South Coast of Peru.

Date/Era: Early Intermediate Period, circa 200-500 CE (or later)

Medium/Materials: Camelid hair, dyed; balanced plain weave, quadruple-cloth (four layers)

Dimensions: 49 x 5 cm

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

Accession Number: X65.14508

Three of the four selvages edges are present.

The small section of a band from the Nasca Valley is a complex weaving with stylized patterns of birds. It was likely used as a headband and was probably quite long. It is a quadruple-cloth with four distinctive woven layers: red, blue, yellow, and white. Each layer has its own wrap and a weft, which only interlace according to color.

Red (and also orange) warp binds with a red weft
Blue warp (both light blue and dark blue) binds with a brown weft
Yellow warp binds with a yellow weft.
While warp binds with a white weft.

Unlike the tubular band, each weft turns around at the outer edge to crearte the selvage edge of each layer of color. These layers are stitched together along the sides.

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