Band with Trophy Heads (100 BCE–700 CE): Art, History and Details

Band with Trophy Heads (100 BCE–700 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This band, remarkable for its intense color and spider-web sheerness, was created using an unusual technique known as discontinuous warp and weft. That is, none of the vertical or horizontal yarns are continuous from one side of the band to the other. Rather, they travel back and forth within their own color areas, linking at the edges with yarns in adjacent areas. This is a difficult feat when weaving on a loom and the creator likely used another approach, such as darning with a needle over a ground cloth that was then removed. The image repeated in each of the band’s rectangles is a head supported on two little feet.

Object facts

• Title: Band with Trophy Heads
• Date: 100 BCE–700 CE
• Culture: Peru, South Coast, Nasca
• Type: Textile
• Technique: interlocking warp and weft, single interlock: wool
• Dimensions: Overall: 180.7 x 21.6 cm (71 1/8 x 8 1/2 in.); Mounted: 193 x 30.5 cm (76 x 12 in.)
• Collection: T - Pre-Columbian
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1953.475

A detail from the museum

This band is made in with a weaving technique that is unique to the ancient Andes.

Collection credit

Gift of John Wise

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.