Page 599 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)
P. 599

pets and mountain pack animals in the United  Llamas were identified by threads or cloth in  water, as shore birds do. Water birds are impor-
        States.                                    holes in their ears. Earmarking is still an impor-  tant motifs in coastal Peruvian art.
          Herds of llamas were controlled by the  Inka  tant ritual in the highlands, and stone llama  The birds are made of several pieces of gold
        state.  State-owned  herds were used for military  fetishes are still used in a number of ceremonies,  soldered together.  The eyes have holes that were
        transport. Shrines and temples owned herds, as  especially fertility rites.           perhaps once inlaid with another material.  E.P.B.
        did the  mummies  of dead kings.  Llamas served as  In this group the smaller, smooth-necked  exam-
        royal gifts  after  successful  military campaigns;  ples represent llamas, whereas the larger animals
        one Inka general is said to have owned  fifteen  with hair at the  neck are alpacas.  E. p. B.
        thousand  llamas (Zarate in Flannery, Marcus, and
        Reynolds 1989,114).
          The llama was of critical importance to  the
        Inka. It was, aside from  man, the  only beast of                                     464
        burden in the New World, carrying up to about
        forty-five  kg (100 Ibs.) on a short trip, less on a                                  HANGING    OR MANTLE
        longer one;  pack trains of five hundred or more  463
        animals transported  goods on Inka roads (Flores                                      c. 1470
                                                                                              Chimu
        Ochoa  1982,  64;  Garcilaso de la Vega  1966, 513;  SEVEN  SEA  BIRDS                cotton, camelid  fiber
        J.  Rowe 1946, 219, 239). The llama was also  Inka                                    222 x 346  (8y /s  x  i}6V4)
                                                                                                        3
        a source of wool for clothing,  accessories,  and  cut and hammered gold
        weapons (the sling). Sandals, thongs,  rope, and  5  x  26  (2 x  -Lo/4)              The  Textile Museum,  Washington
                                                              l
        drums were made from its hide, and  sometimes
        the dead were wrapped in hide for burial. Its  American Museum of Natural  History,  New  York  As the Inka state was rising to power, the king-
        bones were used for tools and ornaments, and its                                      dom of Chimor, that  of the  Chimu people, ruled
        sinew for thread.  Its meat was eaten  fresh  or  Several sets of such objects from  the  Ica-Nasca  the north coast of Peru from  its capital at Chan
        dried—the English word "jerky" derives from  the  region, on the  south coast of Peru, exist, but  their  Chan, a city of some six square kilometers in  the
        Quechua word charqui — and the  dried meat could  use is unknown. They appear to have been  fixed  Moche Valley. The kingdom of Chimor was  the
        be traded for the  foods of lower altitudes.  Llama  in groups of six or seven on a base that was per-  largest  and most powerful of the  coastal  states
        fat was burned for light  and for offerings,  and  haps to be attached to some other object. One  and was also the richest polity taken over by the
        llama dung provided fuel.  Pastoralism  and agricul-  example has a cord (Lapiner 1976, pi. 683).  The  Inka. Nine huge, high-walled  enclosures of adobe
        ture developed together.  The important  high-  identification  of these birds is not  completely  included, among other kinds of structures,  burial
        altitude staple crop was the potato, which, like  clear.  They have been called ibises and may well  platforms with rich stores of grave goods, among
        llama meat,  can be dried through a process of  be, although  most of the birds have straight  bills  which were textiles and goldwork.
        alternately freezing and sundrying.  Potato culti-  whereas those of ibises are curved. The birds  A seated spotted figure with a tail and an
        vation is dependent on llama-dung  fertilizer.  appear to be searching for food in sand or shallow  angular-crescent  headdress is depicted twelve
                                                                                              times on this mantle,  each repetition being
                                                                                              slightly different.  Nine of them are accompanied
                                                                                              by a small version  of the creature.  At the bottom
                                                                                              appear four versions of a possibly lacertilian
                                                                                              animal. The large figure has been called the moon
                                                                                              animal, a mythical  creature that appears in many
                                                                                              variations in earlier Moche and Recuay art. This
                                                                                              piece may have been made under Inka influence,
                                                                                              for  red and yellow were favorite colors of the  Inka
                                                                                              period. Textiles of this bold type come from  the
                                                                                              southernmost Chimu valleys on the north coast of
                                                                                              Peru (Kajitani  1982, pi. 97 and trans,  p.  48).
                                                                                                This is a complete fabric of tapestry  weave, with
                                                                                              cotton  warps and camelid fiber wefts (A. Rowe
                                                                                              1984,112-113, pi.  15). The warps are partly Z-
                                                                                              plied and partly S-plied, but all are three-ply. An
                                                                                              unusually  large piece, it was made with a loom
                                                                                              width of 78-79 cm fooVi in.); the  side pieces were
                                                                                              sewn on.  There are fringed bands on the  sides
                                                                                              and tassels at the  corners.       E. p. B.














        598   CIRCA 1492
   594   595   596   597   598   599   600   601   602   603   604