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Object Name: Shawl or wrapping cloth
Cultural Group/Place of Origin: Chancay culture, central coast of Peru
Date: Late Intermediate Period, 1150-1450 CE
Materials Used: Cotton warp and weft; plain weave
Dimensions: 48 x 58 cm
Credit line and Accession Number: Fowler Museum at UCLA. Gift of Leo Drimmer. X72.544
Source: Elena Phipps, The Peruvian Four-Selvaged Cloth. Ancient Threads / New Directions. Fowler Museum Textile Series, No. 12, Los Angeles, 2013
Each of the two panels has all four selvages preserved.
This four-selvaged cloth retains its long loom cords. Two panels of finished cloth have been stitched up the middle to create this shawl or wrapping cloth. The overspun yarns used in the weaving are kinked (see fig. 26), and when pulled, they stretch creating flexibility in the cloth, so that it could be snugly wrapped around the shoulders of a woman or used to secure a baby or buld of harvested cord to her back.