Color patterns and aspects of significance in the Paracas Necropolis

Summary

Anne Paul (1998) observed that the Paracas Necropolis embroiderers seem to explore all possible color repeat patterns in their mantle design. At the same time, a few dominant color combinations recur throughout the assemblage.

Like speech, color is a system of difference, hues perceived relationally through contrast with those adjacent. Dyed color is produced by chemical processes on natural fiber with pre-existing tones, and changes over time in diverse environmental conditions. These factors complicate color typology for archaeological textiles. A relational approach aids in defining dominant color fields and combinations. The range and diversity of hues linked to techniques and habitual practices are analyzed as aspects of style, which may co-vary with other technical and design features. Motivated uses of certain colors appear to reference features of natural entities and systems of conventional meaning.

The range and intensity of dyed hues on cotton or camelid fiber have been attributed to improving dye technologies, a modernist theory thrown into doubt by expanded artifact samples with better provenience data. Distribution of color spectra and visually dominant combinations among mortuary assemblages suggests association with the social identity of the deceased, or ancestral personage, as well as the contributors and producers of different textiles.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Color, Structure and Meaning in Ancient Andean Fiber Arts

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