Tools Present and Tools Absent in Textile-intensive Mortuary Contexts: the Paracas Case

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Textile Tools and Technologies as Evidence for the Fiber Arts in Precolumbian Societies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In most of the world ancient fabrics are not preserved, though much can be learned about garment systems, surface design and production techniques through tools, accessories and contemporary imagery. The Andean desert coast and mortuary traditions provide extraordinary conditions for textile preservation, but we have much to learn about how they were made. Women’s burials from Inka and other late prehistoric contexts frequently include baskets of spindles and llama bone picks, but loom parts and tools for non-loomed techniques are seldom preserved. Some 1500 years earlier, distinct mortuary traditions from Ocucaje and the Paracas site (c. 250 BCE – 150 CE) include and exclude different types of textile tools, reminding us that mortuary ritual is a locus of norms and choices quite distinct from the practices of daily life. The textiles included in each mortuary tradition provide a different sphere of information, as their forms imply the presence of tools that are yet to be recovered or identified, as well as a complex chain of materials, practices and relationships of production. Replication studies open paths for further research on the techniques and processes that create both textiles and social networks.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Textile Tools and Technologies as Evidence for the Fiber Arts in Precolumbian Societies

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23392