Object Name: Bag
Place of Origin: South coast of Peru (?)
Date: Middle Horizon (?), 600 – 1000 CE.
Materials Used: Cotton and camelid hair (Z-spun, S-plied); plain weave with supplementary-weft patterning
Dimensions: 11 x 11 cm
Credit line and Accession Number: Fowler Museum at UCLA. Gift of the Wellcome Trust. X67.518.

Four selvages are present.

This small bag was woven intentionally with one side patterned and the other side plain; it as completely planned as a single loomed cloth, even with the large creature woven upside-down. While bags such as this are often used to contain coca leaves during lifetime, this one may have subsequently accompanied its owner in death, attached to the outside of the mummy bundle during burial along with others used as offerings.

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