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Museum Collections - Ancient Peru - Chimú - Artifact #6

Small fragment depicting a bird - Chimú

WHO: Chimú culture

WHERE: North coast, Peru

WHEN: Late Intermediate Period/ Late Horizon, A.D. 1200-1550

WHAT: Small fragment with depictions of long-legged, long-necked wading birds. Small birds of the seaside were a common textile motif among all coastal cultures in this later period. It has been suggested that the locomotion of the various birds depicted, which represents their ecological niche (such as diving, swimming, wading, flying), may be symbolic of different cosmological levels found in the ancient people's beliefs.
Fragment Height: 15 cm

HOW: Plain weave ground cloth; cotton warp and weft; supplementary camelid weft.

MUSEUM: Textile Museum of Canada. T81.0036

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