Mummy Bundle "Mask" (170 BCE–70 CE (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)): Art, History and Details

Mummy Bundle "Mask" (170 BCE–70 CE (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The Paracas people of Peru's South Coast buried their dead in pear-shaped mummy bundles made of a seated human body carefully wrapped in garments and other textiles. Sometimes a painted cloth was placed at the top of the bundle, as though it served as the bundle's face, head, or "mask." The cloth was padded on the back so it curved outward like a face, and the tress-like yarns (unwoven warps) at the upper edge were arranged around a solid cotton disk that, in turn, was wrapped with a headband. Some cloths were painted with mask-like faces, and others with full figures, apparently mythical creatures.

Object facts

• Title: Mummy Bundle "Mask"
• Date: 170 BCE–70 CE (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)
• Culture: Peru, South Coast, Ica Valley, Ocucaje site, Paracas style (700 BCE–1 CE)
• Type: Textile
• Technique: plain warp-faced cloth, painted: cotton
• Dimensions: Overall: 58.5 x 18.8 cm (23 1/16 x 7 3/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Pre-Columbian
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1940.522

A detail from the museum

These masks fall into two categories, those with only a face and those with a full-bodied figure.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Frame, Mary. “Cronología de los fardos funerarios de Wari Kayan, Paracas Necrópolis.” Hilos del pasado: el aporte francés al legado Paracas. Lima: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, 2007.

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.