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

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