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Embroidered Panel from Pre-Columbian Peru

Embroidered panel from pre-Columbian Peru. Embroidered panel from pre-Columbian Peru. Copyright Victoria and Albert Museum, London, acc. no. T.71-1933.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London houses an embroidered panel that originates from pre-Columbian Peru and has been dated to the period 500-100 BC. The embroidery is carried out in wool on a cotton ground, and worked in stem stitch. The fragment measures 11 x 8.5 cm.

The panel derives from one of the burials excavated in the 1920's in the Paracas peninsula, in southern Peru. The deceased, wrapped in various textiles, were buried in a seated position and placed into a basket. The embroidery shows a shaman or other person holding a cut-off head in one hand, and a sacrifical axe in the other.

Many of the Paracas textiles were housed in Gothenburg, Sweden, but are currently being returned to Peru (the process is due to be completed in 2021; for further information, click here).

Digital source (retrieved 3 October 2016). 

V&A online catalogue (retrieved 3 October 2016).

WV

Last modified on Monday, 03 October 2016 08:47