Lima Culture - Material Culture - Textiles

Textiles

Textiles were considered a symbol of status and wealth, many mummies have been found wrapped in many layers of the finest embroidered tapestries symbolizing a person of power in society. They were constructed of a variation of fibers from plants, usually cotton, and various animal furs (usually alpaca or llama). The particular styles of textile in Lima culture have transformed and evolved over time, yielding a variety of textile patterns throughout the culture's history. Segments of Lima culture weaved fine-looking multicolored tapestries and blankets and dyed their creations with natural dyes of which they created more than 190 different shades. At certain periods the textiles used geometric, anthropomorphous and animal designs such as birds and felines. Depicting inanimate objects as animals is a common practice in Andean art, which conveys an association between the object and the qualities that the animal embodies. Textiles would be woven for everything from everyday clothing, to ceremonial robes for religious and political elites, burial mantels and wall-hangings for temples and palaces. It is also clear that the ancient Lima culture appreciated pattern and design for its own sake, as seen in their extensive use of the interlocking pattern in their designs. In this pattern, a series of geometrically stylized animal or human figures interlock so skillfully that the same pattern appears when the fabric is looked at from upside down, and sometimes it is difficult or impossible to determine where one image ends and another starts.