Virtual Museum of Canada

A Life Story
Moche Textile Fragment
Life Story stage one: FORM
Life Story stage two: FUNCTION
Life Story stage three: INTERMENT
Life Story stage four: REDISCOVERY
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Life Story stage two: FUNCTION

While my images are those of the Wari people, my structure indicates that I was made on the coast using the techniques characteristic of the politically independent Moche. Many of the garments made in the Wari highlands were made entirely of wool, as the camelids that provided the raw material for the yarn thrived best when tended at those high elevations. However, as you can see, my ground cloth is all cotton, a plant that grows best at lower elevations like those of the coast.

While my people had access to cotton locally, they still imported great amounts of wool from the highlands for textile production. Wool can be dyed more vibrantly and in many more colours than cotton so woolen yarn became an essential raw material in all of the fine ancient Peruvian weaving traditions, regardless of the distance from camelid herds.

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