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Paracas Textiles
Art 321
Tess Bader
4/20/2009

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On the coast of southern Peru lies the Paracas Peninsula. Roughly translated, Paracas
means “sand falling like rain.” 1 It was given this name because the only storms it ever sees are
wind storms that blow the sand around. There is not one documented drop of rain in this area.
The Paracas culture is known as the source of the most impressive pre-Columbian textiles in the
world. These textiles are amazingly intricate and give us insight into the ancient Paracas culture.
Most pieces were woven for everyday wear, but the majority of the remaining textiles were
created for ceremonial or burial purposes. Hundreds have been found buried in the large Paracas
Necropolis. The fact that the ceremonial pieces were buried kept them far better preserved than
pieces that were worn regularly. 2
To understand both the social and technical importance of these textiles, we must analyze
pieces from both the linear and block styles. We will first introduce the excavation site and then
explore the techniques used to create examples from both styles found in the area. We will then
analyze the motifs used. We must also explore the materials and tools used to create these
masterpieces. To better understand the Paracas culture, it is important to also understand the
principles of each style and the processes which were utilized in the creation of such fantastic
textiles. Geography, religion, and social hierarchy each influenced the design of individual
textiles. These three factors were far more significant than the artists’ preferences in creating
these weavings.
The Paracas were an Andean culture that began around 700BCE and lasted over six
hundred years. The Paracas people were extremely advanced in more than just their weavings.
1 Museum, The British. Paracas; Cloth and Culture. 2005.
http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/americas/south/1000-200BC/paracas (accessed March 24, 2009).
2 Hagen, Adriana Von. Cities of the Ancient Andes. (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. , 1998) pg 105

Agriculturally, they were leaders in utilizing rainfall from the Andes in local rivers for farming
irrigation purposes. 3
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This advanced farming allowed the Paracas people to grow their own
cotton for their amazing weavings. Other materials, such as feathers, alpaca wool, llama wool,
and beads were also used. These different materials were gathered and harvested in different
areas in Peru, and traded among the neighboring Peruvian cultures. The wool, for example,
came from animals that were raised in the Peruvian highlands and sheared once a year. This
wool was then traded for coastal treasures like shells.
The most valuable weavings were created using alpaca wool. Alpacas were known to
produce the finest, strongest, and most durable wool out of all the animals in Peru. The fiber was
also very easy to dye in up to forty shades using natural pigments such as leaves, bark, clay,
bugs, and shellfish. It is important that the wool be sheared every other year before the rainy
season began. The fact that each animal only produced about eight pounds of wool for the
shearing makes alpaca fiber even rarer than cashmere. Another precious fiber was pima cotton,
or gamuza. It was hand picked, which made it finer, smoother, and purer than the machine
harvested cotton we have today. It is also very lustrous and took dyes well.
Most evidence we have relating to these textiles was found by exploring the ancient
tombs of the Paracas people that lay in the hills of the Cerro Colorado. These cemetery grounds
cover an astounding 4000 square meters. The earlier Cavernas burial site (300BC-200AD) was
smaller and was made up of bottle shaped caverns. These caverns held up to 37 mummies each.
The most prestigious people were buried in the center of this pile of bodies. We know this
3
Kreft, Linda. Symbols of Authority. 2004. http://www.lindakreft.com/pef/paracas_lesson.pdf (accessed March 27,
2009).
4
Museum, The Brooklyn. Before Columbus. 2008. http://beforecolumbus.net/brooklynmuseum.html
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ecause they were buried wrapped in the largest number of textiles as well as the highest
quality. 5
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However, the huge Paracas Necropolis had steep sides and was crowded with ancient
remains and artifacts. This giant tomb was discovered by a Peruvian archeologist named Julio
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Tello in the 1920’s. The Necropolis consists of a series of large burial chambers that held about
40 mummies each. All of these mummies, over five hundred, were excavated with their knees
tucked up under their chins (Fig. 1). 7
Depending on the wealth of the deceased, the body was
buried in several layers of exquisite Paracas textiles. Sometimes as many as sixty pieces were
found on a single body, with the most intricate closest to the body. It is interesting that these
garments were not worn by the deceased, but wrapped around them instead. The number of
layers and the intricacy of the individual textiles signified the financial standing and social and
political power of the deceased’s family. The more of these textiles that were owned in life, the
more were included in the tomb after death. These mummies were extremely well preserved
because of the lack of rain in the coastal deserts of Peru.
Other offerings that were included in the burials were pottery, gold, silver, shells,
feathers, and food. Offering food such as maize, peanuts, and yucca suggests that the Paracas
people wanted to nourish the deceased in the afterlife. It also suggests that they were hoping that
if they fed the dead, the spirits would help them have a better harvest. Some of the weavings that
were not buried with the dead were burned as a sacrificial offering to the spirits. They believed
that these offerings would increase their chances of having a high yield when harvest time came.
5 Miller, Rebecca Stone. Art of the Andes from Chavin to Inca. (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. 1995) pg 63
6 Anne Peters, Paracas Necropolis: Salvaging Contextual Relationships,
http://www.doaks.org/research/pre_columbian/doaks_pco_project_grant_report_2005.html, (2008)
7 Miller, Rebecca Stone. Art of the Andes from Chavin to Inca. (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. , 1995) pg 53.

Also, motifs such as birds and transformational figures show that the Paracas people believed in
communication between this life and the afterlife.
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The spiritual importance of these textiles was only part of their value. They were worth
more than even silver or gold to the tribe. Even after these tombs were compromised by grave
robbers, there were still many exciting treasures to be discovered thanks to the perfect dry
climate. Tello’s excavations unearthed hundreds of these exquisite ancient textiles in both linear
style, and block style.
Linear style began first, during the Cavernous phase in 300BC and lasted over four-
hundred years and into the beginning of block style. Linear style is meant to be abstract and
capture the essence of the subject matter, rather than naturalistic or representational of actual life.
It is however, very much based on control, precision, and repetition. 8 They were commonly
done in four main colors; red, green, gold, and blue. Linear textiles are usually done using a
warp and weft technique with camelid fiber. A warp is a vertical thread that is strung onto the
loom first. It is a supporting element in the textile and rarely carries patterning. A weft is a
horizontal thread that is strung after the warp. It is not a structural element, as is used to be
decorative. 9
Unlike the block style pieces, linear garments had a sense of transparency. The weavers
used figures such as felines, snakes, birds, steps, occulate beings, and faces that were nested
within each other. This transparency caused intentional confusion and created a sense of
8 Miller, Rebecca Stone. Art of the Andes from Chavin to Inca. (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1995) pg 52
9 Hagen, Adriana Von. Cities of the Ancient Andes. (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1998) pg 106

interconnectedness between the figures and the ground cloth. This interconnectedness echoed
the relationship between the Paracas people and their environment.
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The poncho pictured in Figure 2 is decorated with two-headed birds and demonstrates
transparency very clearly. In each of the rectangular motifs, four interlocked bird forms can be
found. 10
The first is the largest and most recognizable. Within the largest bird, there is a
secondary, less detailed bird facing the opposite direction of the first. Next is the third bird,
inside the second. It is more abstract and faces the same direction as its host. Finally, there are
two matching, fully abstracted bird forms in the wings of the largest bird. There is also an
alternating pattern of two similar bird forms around the neck hole and the perimeter of the
poncho.
On the other hand, block style is easily recognizable by the repetition of figures, with
variations in color patterns. Up to nineteen colors were used in these pieces. This style is clear
and legible, but is not nearly as restricted as linear style. Block style textiles began with outlines
of the figures to be woven on top of the background piece. Weavers used a stem stitch system
that consisted of overlapping diagonal stitches that covered large areas of the contrasting ground
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color. These outlines were filled in according to a complex pattern of alternating colors. Even
though each textile repeated only a single figure, having this variety kept the figures consistent
without allowing them to become monotonous. 12
The elaborate figures were usually done in
curvilinear shapes. The design elements and figures were woven from observation to represent
10
Rebecca Stone-Miller, To Weave for the Sun, (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1992) pg 72
11
Miller, Rebecca Stone. Art of the Andes from Chavin to Inca. (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1995) pg 54
12
Rebecca Stone-Miller, To Weave for the Sun, (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1992) pg 30

actual events and people. Block style does not utilize transparency, but pushes ideas of ritual
transformation, superhumans, and shaman. 13
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One of the most celebrated block style textiles is an embroidered mantle that features a
pattern of ornate bird impersonators (Fig. 3). Each impersonator has trophy heads on his wings
and is pictured holding snakes. They also have talon clad feet like a predatory bird. This
probably represents the power of the bird as a hunter. The bird impersonators each have a
headdress and arrow shaped kennings on each side of their legs. This mantle was actually
discovered in 1917, thirteen years before the excavation of the Paracas Necropolis in a cemetery
south of Pisco.
This article was mapped out using several closely woven rows of stem threads which
creates a dense color and obscures the background color entirely. It remains unfinished, and this
gives us insight into the process of creating such a textile and the order its stitches were
completed in. It has a matching skirt that also remains unfinished. This garment was probably
worked on by several weavers, as most textiles were at that time. The cooperative work of many
weavers suggests that the cloth itself was more important than the tribe member that created it
receiving credit. These pieces represented an entire clan, rather than an individual weaver. 14
Notice that when they are compared, both of these superb examples of Paracas weaving
share a motif involving birds. It was believed that birds were the most powerful animal because
they had the gift of flight. Birds are able to travel between the earth’s three major habitat areas;
land, water, and sky. Ancient Paracas people saw this as a sign that birds could also travel
13 Miller, Rebecca Stone. Art of the Andes from Chavin to Inca. (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. , 1995) pg 56
14 Rebecca Stone-Miller, To Weave for the Sun, (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1992) pg 79

etween the worlds of the living and the dead. Bird motifs were showcased on so many of these
textiles because of this idea of duality and communication with the spirits. There may be more
than one reason that the Paracas people would want to contact the dead, but most likely they
were asking for good fortune with agricultural harvests.
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Some of the other, less celebrated textiles were done using techniques such as knotting
and braiding. These practices were also frequently used in conjunction with other weaving
techniques to create fringe. They also created netting, beadwork, tabbing, looping, and more.
The basket in Figure 4 was found in a woman’s grave and contains tools for every step in
creating a textile. For example, there is unspun fiber, spinning tools, spun thread, a needle,
ceramic cup, and chalk. This basket must have belonged to a very skillful master weaver. Even
the craftsmanship used in creating these tools goes beyond utilitarian needs by incorporating
decorations that follow the same themes as the pieces to be woven. 15
One thing that remained constant, no matter the material or technique, was that the textile
itself was representative of the entire clan, rather than the weaver who created it. Also, the
process of the weaving was more important than being efficient. It has been estimated that
anywhere between 5,000 and 29,000 hours were spent on each textile. It seems that Paracas
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people devoted their lives to honoring the dead.
Many Paracas techniques are so advanced that
they still have yet to be replicated. The Paracas people will probably always remain unmatched
in skill and craftsmanship because they created their textiles for secular purposes, to honor the
tribe, and to create connections with the material and spiritual worlds alike.
15
Rebecca Stone-Miller, To Weave for the Sun, (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1992) pg 70
16
Kreft, Linda. The Culture of the Paracas; The Power of Garments. 2004.
http://www.lindakreft.com/ancestors.html (accessed March 27, 2009).

Figure 1 17
These Necropolis mummy bundles consisted of a body, seated in a basket, and wrapped with
exquisite textiles. Hundreds were found buried in the Cerro Colorado hills.
17 Miller, Rebecca Stone. Art of the Andes from Chavin to Inca. (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. , 1995) pg 52-53
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Figure 2 18
This linear style poncho is a prime example of transparency. The abstract bird figures are nested
inside each other to communicate an idea of interconnectedness with environmental
surroundings.
18 Miller, Rebecca Stone. To Weave for the Sun. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1992) pg 72
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Figure 3 19
This block style mantle features a bird impersonator theme that is consistent with ideas of
transformation and communication between worlds.
19 Miller, Rebecca Stone. To Weave for the Sun. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1992) pg 79
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Figure 4 20
This basket contains all of the advanced tools for a professional Pre-Columbian weaver. It is a
beautiful example of craftsmanship in an area besides actual textiles.
20 Miller, Rebecca Stone. To Weave for the Sun. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1992) pg. 69
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March 27, 2009).
—. The Culture of the Paracas; The Power of Garments. 2004.
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