Size: adult; probable wearer: male. The plain weave field is made up of a horizontal camelid fiber warp and camelid fiber weft. The border is made of a horizontal camelid fiber warp, camelid fiber weft and embroidery. The mantle consists of a black field with a narrow median band. The wide border represents sixteen double bird figures facing outward with the same image repeated within. The colors employed are dark blue, reddish-purple, dark green, and golden yellow with the fringes made of the same colors.

This mantle would have been worn or used by an adult male. It is constructed of a plain weave dark blue horizontal camelid fiber warp and weft field and camelid fiber stem stitch, rectilinearly worked one-faced embroidery decorated red plain weave border. This textile has been reshaped in order to flatten it. Three corners have been slit and the fringe moved at one of them. In the lower left field, in order to cover the newly formed field's edge, the crossed looping was removed, the fringe freed, and restitched on the border edge (NK). From Mary Frame's notes: Color blocks in the field are based on the consistent coloration of two nested outlines of the serpentine body, and on the borders are based on the consistent coloration of three nested outlines. There is a symmetrical deviation on the border where in two cases the coloration of the nested outlines inside is reversed. The nested figures have snake bodies and human heads with cat filler figures; multiple figures are nested within the outline of "linear"' style figures. The total number of field figures equal 262 whole figures and 96 partial figures; the total number of textile figures is 268 whole figures and 108 partial figures. In the field, the colors line up as three monocolors on the Z diagonal. This mantle is exceptionally regular in its lay-out and color patterning. A singular deviation from the pattern occurs in the paired band on the right side of the field. One less figure is incorporated in each of the pair. The mantle also has more paired bands in the field than any other in the sample located so far. Two other mantles in the Brooklyn Museum collection have the same paired band format and the same figure (34.1552 and 32.106). A poncho (34.1582), two headbands (34.1597 and X2000.1032), and a mantle with a plain field (34.1551) also have the same figure. The main variations among this group are: the number of paired bands in the field, the number of colored outlines in border and field figures, the slant (S or Z) of the serpentine bodies, and the number and completeness of the color blocks. The border figures are Z-slanted and the field figures are S-slanted. The number, color and slant attributes of the repeating figures can also be applied to the structure of cords, which the interlocked figures resemble. See "The Visual Images of Fabric Structures in Ancient Peruvian Art" by Mary Frame (The Junius B. Bird Conference on Andean Textiles, April 7th and 8th, 1984, ed. Ann Pollard Rowe, pp. 47-80. Washington, D.C.: Textile Museum, 1886) for a discussion of imagery related to the structures of cloth and cords. Most "linear" embroideries of this type have a dark blue field with predominantly red embroidery. A smaller number have a different color scheme. Similar textiles may be found in the collection of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia y Arqueologia de Lima, and they are a headband from bundle (401); a skirt (421-49); a mantle (421-4) and a poncho (421-44); in the collection of the United Nations, New York; and in the Boston Museum of Art (1972.353).

Anonymous gift in memory of Dr. Harlow Brooks

Museum Expedition 1941, Frank L. Babbott Fund

Size: adult; probable wearer: undetermined or male? The textile is woven with a vertical cotton warp and a cotton weft and decorated with camelid fiber embroidery. The remnants of the field and panel are a dark brown plain weave. Decorative embroidery in red, green blue, yellow, khaki and undyed beige runs down a panel at the center of the textile and on four L-shaped corner borders. The missing field cloth may or may not have had an overall pattern. Two sides of the central panel and the inner side of the corner borders have a rick-rack-like border. Mary Frame has noted that the style of this mantle is Paracas Necropolis "block color," with a panel and border design of alternating human figures rendered in blues, browns and yellows; each figure has either a swollen or dented chest. Serpentine streamers ending in animal heads emanate from the figures, which also wear elaborate garments and ornaments including short tunics, arm and leg bands, spondylous shell pendants, and gold head ornaments with danglers in front of the ears. The figures also carry what are probably ceremonial fans. A complete series of figures is visible on the central panel.

Alfred W. Jenkins Fund

Gift of Ernest Erickson

Alfred T. White Fund

Border fragment woven in camelid fiber with camelid embroidery. The imagery stands out against the light tan plain weave background. Represented are two figures with monkey feet, serrated legs, and a feline mask. The figures float in reverse directions and hold streamers of beans and staffs decorated with tuber-like plants. A border of this type would have been part of a mantle or poncho.

Gift of Mrs. Eugene Schaefer