Mummy Bundle "Mask" (400–200 BCE): Art, History and Details

Mummy Bundle "Mask" (400–200 BCE) 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 buried their dead in bundles that they created by carefully wrapping the seated human body in layers of garments and other textiles. In some cases, they placed a painted cloth—such as these examples—on the outer layer and at the top of the bundle. The hair-like yarns (unwoven warps) were arranged around a solid cotton disk that was sometimes wrapped with a headband. The cloths, then, seem to have functioned as the bundle’s head, even though some are painted not with faces but with complete figures whose supernatural character is marked by the appendages streaming from their bodies.

Object facts

• Title: Mummy Bundle "Mask"
• Date: 400–200 BCE
• Culture: Peru, South Coast, Ica Valley, Ocucaje site, Paracas style (700 BCE–1 CE)
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Cotton and pigment; plain weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 61 x 24.1 cm (24 x 9 1/2 in.)
• Collection: T - Pre-Columbian
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1940.527

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

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.