The Portable Murals and Painted Shrouds of Middle Sicán Tombs

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The primacy of textiles as the preeminent expressive medium of identity and alterity is well documented in Andean prehistory. Based on the study of three types of textiles including tapestry woven patches and painted cloth housed in the Ethnological Museum of Berlin as they compare to mixed-media mounted canvases found in situ at the site Sicán, this paper spotlights the interrelatedness and significance of textile and painted arts in the Middle Sicán, or Classic Lambayeque, period between 900-1100 CE. With the majority of preserved, diagnostically Sicán specimens deriving from the central coastal site of Pachacamac, these portable objects expose the breadth and ubiquity of Middle Sicán emblems and ideas during the Late Intermediate Period. Assessment of function and depositional patterns intimate the variable roles of textiles in funerary contexts. From self-enhancement through small, emblematic and bold patches for personal adornment, to shrouds and seals sanctifying a burial, and finally, monumental, though mobile architectonic dressings, Sicán aesthetic expression is proven to be technologically complex, brilliantly colorful, and more iconographically diverse than is typically characterized through their better known metallurgical and ceramic products.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33558