This magnificently illustrated work offers a comprehensive view of the textiles and techniques of pre-Columbian Peru. An introduction discusses yarns, dyes, looms, and raw materials; the first of the two-part text examines weaves, and the second considers such nonwoven materials as braiding, felt, and embroidery.

Essays on the textiles and their historical background and iconography, followed by color plates.

This title provides an in-depth and authoritative review of feeatherworking traditions in ancient Peru. The book includes a discussion of important recent discoveries, considerations of iconography, and basic technical characteristics of feather works.

Distinct from all textiles in South America, with brilliant colors, varied motifs and patterns, and fine weaving, the textiles woven in and around the ancient lands of Andamarca located in the Huamachuco region of northern Peru represent an unbroken elite weaving tradition directly descended from the Incas.This remote area of the Andean highlands was designated by the Incas as a royal elite weaving community. Miraculously, its weaving traditions survived through the Spanish Colonial period to the present. Indeed, waistbands still woven today and referred to locally as "sara" belts are identical in pattern and colors found in a weaving code for a waist or head band described in a 16th Century Spanish Chronicle written by Martin de Murúa. Our interpretation is that this was made for the sole use of the Inca Queen, the Coya, and/or closely related princesses.Using ethnographic data collected through interviews with the indigenous population, blankets, waistbands, and to a lesser extent other cultural and ritualistic objects, are described and analyzed. A detailed, novel, and rigorous symmetry analysis is used to identify characteristics, patterns, evolution, references, style, motifs, and age.