Abstract
In 1998, an undisturbed grave containing a woman and a foetus was excavated at Huaca Malena. This article describes the Middle Horizon tomb and the unwrapping of the two bundles. Women's garments of the Middle Horizon are not well known, and the adult bundle contained a range of female garments, accessories, and tools, including a dress and a shawl fragment, headbands, belts, bags, and weaving implements. The textiles from this grave context are compared with textiles from other Huaca Malena contexts and coastal sites, highlighting the local style and discussing its antecedents and influences from other styles. The presence of local and regional styles of textiles at Huaca Malena and other coastal sites in this period suggests that local groups maintained relationships with a variety of regional polities during the Middle Horizon, and were not under direct control of the Wari.
En 1998, un contexto funerario intacto que contenía una mujer y un feto se excavó en Huaca Malena. Este artículo describe la tumba que data del Periodo Horizonte Medio, y la apertura de los dos fardos. La ropa femenina del Horizonte Medio no es bien conocida, y el fardo adulto contuvo una variedad de ropa femenina, accesorios e instrumentos, de vestido y fragmento del chal a cintas para la cabeza, fajas o cinturones, bolsas, e instrumentos de tejer. Después de la descripción de los especímenes, estos son comparados con textiles de otros contextos de Huaca Malena y de otros sitios costeros, destacando el estilo local y discutiendo sus antecedentes e influencias de otros estilos. La presencia de estilos locales y regionales de tejidos en Huaca Malena, y otros sitios costeros, en este período sugiere patrones de interacción que no eran el resultado de control directo de la cultura Wari. En cambio, los textiles sugieren que los grupos locales en Huaca Malena, y en otros sitios, mantuvieron relaciones con una variedad de regímenes regionales que incluyeron a Wari, Moche–Wari y Sicán durante el Horizonte Medio.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge those who assisted with the excavation and the unwrapping of the mummy bundle: Pablo Solís, Martha Guzman, and Eduardo Jajachagua. We would also like to thank Denise Pozzi-Escot for her support and contribution to the understanding of the site, as well as Ann Rowe, Susan Bergh, Hilda Chuchón, Maribel Medina, Jerry Moore, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and assistance. Mary Frame thanks the Selz Foundation for funding several trips to Peru, during which the bundles were unwrapped. Rommel Ángeles thanks the Municipality of Asia for constant support and the creation of the municipal museum in Asia.
Notes
1 The dates for the Middle Horizon for the purpose of this article roughly follow those published by William Isbell (Citation2008: 732, Figure 37.1), which are based on current calibrated radiocarbon assays. He uses a start date of 550–600 C.E. for Epoch 1a, here rounded to 600 C.E., and a terminal date of 1000 C.E. for the end of Epoch 4. Scholars are not entirely in accord on the absolute dates for the Middle Horizon or the duration of the period when Wari influence was at its height on the coast. Some of the reasons for the discrepancies are summarized in Isbell (Citation2001: 55, note 3).
2 Approximately 4,000 textiles from disturbed contexts were recovered, and are now in the collection of the site museum.
3 Mejia Xesspe's illustrations of Huaca Malena artifacts from Tello's excavations include some examples that are Wari textiles (Tello Citation2000: 79, mummy 20), or Moche–Wari textiles (Tello Citation2000: 172 and 174 lower left), both of which are Middle Horizon styles. However, Inca textiles and metal artifacts, which belong to the Late Horizon (circa 1470–1532 C.E.), are also illustrated (for instance, Tello Citation2000: 158, lower left, and 159–161).
4 The bundle came from Sector 1, Platform A, Unit 1.2 Bb, Tomb 6. The number 38 is its accession number in the Huaca Malena Site Museum in the town of Capilla de Asia. The bundle has been described briefly in a prior publication (Pozzi-Escot and Ángeles Citation2011: 38–39). A photograph of the bundle has been published (Ángeles and Pozzi-Escot (Citation2000: Figure 9), but it was mistakenly labeled as the mummy of a male.
5 The notation for yarn structure follows that suggested by Jeffrey Splitstoser (Citation2012), where the final twist direction, S or Z, is notated first in upper case. Prior twisting operations are shown bracketed, in order, with lower case letters and numbers. Yarns that are notated S(2z) are typical of the coast and highlands of the center and south regions. S-spun yarns, usually used as pairs in the warp, and plied yarns made from S-spun yarns (Z(2s)) are typical of the northern region.
8 See Rowe (Citation1977: 53–54) for more detail on warp-float weaves.
9 People in the sierra continue to spin and ply plant fibers into cordage by rolling two bunches of fibers between their palms and then passing the bunches held in their fingers from hand to hand so that they ply around each other in the opposite direction (Frame Citation1989: Figure 32).
10 For related examples of double-woven double-cloth, see Cahlander and Baizerman (Citation1985: 39, Figures 5–7, 5–8) and Rowe (Citation1977: 96, Figure 113).
11 The woven section in element 6 is a complementary warp weave; in element 7, it is plain weave in warp-faced double-cloth.
13 Dresses worn in life would not have been folded in half at the horizontal seam. They may have been folded to make a flounce that lay across the bodice, as in Nasca dresses from Cahuachi (Frame Citation2005), or they may not have been folded at all, depending on the height of the individual and the width of the panels.
14 Bennett and Bird (Citation1964: 210) suggested the term “reinforced tapestry” (tapiz reforzado, in Spanish), which some authors continue to use. The present article follows the textile terminology of Irene Emery (Citation1966) and Ann Rowe (Citation1977, Citation1979) for weave structures.
16 The sett is 14 warps and 5 wefts per cm; both warp and weft yarns are S(2z).
17 Element 5a is a balanced plain weave cotton cloth with Z-spun warps and wefts. Element 5b is a warp-faced plain weave cotton cloth with S(2z) warps and wefts. Element 5c is a cotton cloth with supplementary wefts that is heavily darned. The warps and wefts are S-spun, and the warps are paired. Element 5d is a fragment of warp-faced camelid fabric; both warps and wefts are S(2z).
18 The band, measuring 58 cm × 9 cm, is from a moderately fine woven cotton cloth; both warps and wefts are S-spun, and the warps are paired.
19 Moche–Wari textiles are particularly numerous at El Castillo, Huarmey Valley (Prümers Citation1990, Citation2001), but they have been found at many other sites to the south, such as Pachacamac (Engelstad Citation1990) and Huaca Pucllana.
20 After working with collections from Huaca Malena for more than a decade, Pozzi-Escot and Ángeles have identified some types as “Malena style” (see 2011: 122, bottom; 123; 128, top; 129, bottom; 131; 132; 134–136; 143; 147; 148; 150; 151; 153; 154, bottom; 155, bottom; among others).
21 Variations in double-woven double-cloth have been described and instructions for replicating some variants have been published in Cahlander and Baizerman (Citation1985: 143–159).
22 Interlocked serpentine patterns at Huaca Malena are woven in slit tapestry or in complementary warp weave with colors added through embroidery. Narrow panels of interlocked patterns, which are numerous (Pozzi-Escot and Ángeles Citation2011: 120, bottom; 140, top; 144, bottom; and 147, top and bottom), are joined to plain panels to make garments.
23 Cahlander and Baizerman (Citation1985: Figure 5.5 and Plate 8 (Wari style), Figure 5.7 (Wari style), and Figure 5.8 (probably late Nasca style)) and Rowe (Citation1977: Figure 113 (Late Nasca style, Middle Horizon Epoch 1)).
25 Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú, RT 203, RT 7130, RT 17993, and 22104; Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Santiago, 0205 (Brugnoli and Hoces Citation2002).
26 Corner patterns in the shape of stepped triangles are common among cloths of this period from further south, such as those from Monte Grande in the lower Nasca drainage (Rowe Citation1986: Figures 22–30, 32–36). The Monte Grande cloths are two or four-panel cloths that are plainer than the three-panel shawls of Huaca Malena.
27 William Conklin published an isometric drawing of the structure and a photograph of the double-cloth bag where it occurred (1979: Figures 6 and 7).
28 Donnan and Donnan (Citation1997) have published data on Moche textiles excavated at Pacatnamu, including a range of fabric structures and garment types. Some distinctive garment types, like the quadripartite headcloth (1997: Figure 37), were also found among Moche–Wari textiles at Ancón.
36 Rowe understood this was a woman's garment (1996: Figure 150), but identified it as a mantle rather than a dress.
37 Registration number: RT 30570 a–g.
38 Textiles from these sites have been described by researchers (see notes 22–28) who continue to build on the pioneering work of Max Uhle, Wilhelm Reiss, Alfons Stübel, and Dorothy Menzel.
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