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LIVING AND DOCUMENTED CULTURE · 04

Materials that crossed coast, highlands and jungle

Feathers, shells, metals and fibres travelled between the coast, the highlands and the jungle to become objects.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · AI-GENERATED IMAGE · TRACEKEEPERS

Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Declared visual reconstruction, created for museographic contextualisation; not a photograph of the original nor does it constitute documentary evidence.

Image of Materials that crossed coast, highlands and jungle
DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · AI-GENERATED IMAGE · TRACEKEEPERS

Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Declared visual reconstruction, created for museographic contextualisation; not a photograph of the original nor does it constitute documentary evidence.

History and context

A hybrid object can mark pilgrimage, itinerant workshop or local appropriation.

Evidence and interpretation

Synthesis based on UNESCO · Chavín; UNESCO · Caral; UNESCO · Tiwanaku. The comparison serves to formulate questions, not to fill gaps in the record with certainties.

Catalogue facts

Civilisation or trajectory
Pre-Inca cultures
Scope
Visual and Material Arts
Main area
Coast, highlands and Altiplano of the central Andes: Caral, Chavín, Nazca, Moche, Tiwanaku, Wari and Chimú.

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .

Two landscapes united in a textile

The structure of Wari tunics brought together materials from different environments. The warp, the threads that hold the textile, was usually of cotton cultivated in coastal regions; the weft that formed the design was elaborated with camelid fibre from the highlands. The connection between regions was therefore incorporated into the garment’s construction before observing its images. The Metropolitan moreover emphasises that these tunics were worn together with headdresses, jewellery and facial paint. Their meaning depended on the body and the ensemble of ornaments, not solely on a surface hung in a display case.

Location and territory

Physical world map with routes of human evolutionPresent-day world coastline from Natural Earth in an equirectangular projection. The overlaid markers let you explore each milestone.Map base: Natural Earth 1:110m · public domain · present-day reference coastline

REGIONAL AREA

Coast, highlands and Altiplano: seven areas and overlapping chronologies, not a frontier nor a single civilisationCoast, highlands and Altiplano: seven areas and overlapping chronologies, not a frontier nor a single civilisation. The footprint marks the orientative centre of the realm, not a frontier nor an exact point.

Sources and references

Consult the sources of this cultural synthesis

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