Amerindian Textiles
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The 6th International Conference on Amerindian Textiles Thursday 28th, Friday 29th and saturday 30th of November 2013 musée du quai Branly – Cinema Room Amerindian Textiles: Crossed Perspectives on Colors and Current Research Topics ABSTRACTS This Conference is a continuation of Victoria Solanilla’s commitment to organizing a Pre-Columbian textile conference in Barcelona every three years. It considers Pre-Columbian textiles as well as related historic and ethnographic textiles from all the Americas and privileges interdisciplinary and interregional approaches. Inspired by research currently being conducted at the musée du quai Branly, one of the sessions at the conference is specifically devoted to the role colors played and still play in Amerindian textiles Rommell ÁNGELES FALCÓN* & Mirtha CRUZADO** * Museo de sitio de Pachacamac, Peru; ** Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Peru “Textiles from the Inca period found in Calca, Cusco” In the framework of an environmental impact archaeological project, a section of the cemetery of the site Totora I has been investigated in 2012, as well as graves located on the banks of the Qocchoc river, a tributary of the Vilcanota river, in the district of Calca (Calca province, Cusco department). The study involved 152 rock shelters with disturbed graves, of which 52 contained fragments of textiles and ropes, organic materials seldom found in the highlands due to their moist climate. The textiles were associated with Inca and Killke pottery, characteristic of Late Intermediate and Inca periods (ca 13th - 16th c.). The ropes, in vegetable fibres, had been used to tie the mummies. The other textiles were mostly made from camelid fibres: warp-faced woven textiles, some with discontinuous warps or striped, flat braids, looped fabrics, and cotton textiles in smaller proportions. At a morphological level, one observes cloths, slings, broken hats, belts, bands, and bags in camelid fibres. Although the sample is small, distinction can be made between fabrics produced in Cusco before and during the Inca Empire, and those produced on the coast. And one notes that they conform to a single textile tradition that spanned between the Late Intermediate Period and the Late Horizon. Denise Y. ARNOLD* & Elvira ESPEJO** *Sainsbury Research Centre, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom; **Instituto de Lengua y Cultural Aymara, La Paz, Bolivia “Production techniques and thoughts about colour: Ethnographic and ontological methods for the register of colour in Andean textiles” We compare two experiences concerning colour in Andean textiles: first in research on the use of natural dyes among modern weavers around the city of Challapata (Bolivia) and second, in the application of this knowledge to a method for registering colour in textiles in museum collections, this time going from the object colour to the production processes in its making. We examine the planification of the combinations of colours and designs through the instruments called waraña, and continue with the register of the dyeing processes in water and the colour variants depending on the immersion. We register the application of colour in different moments of the productive chain (by impregnation, immersion, reserve techniques, outlining, application to the textile surface, or combinations of these). In another stage of the productive chain, we register colour use in relation to the structures and techniques used in the weaving process, by the arrangement of the colour layers and types of contrast used in the textile. Finally, we model a digital and ontological system to convert the values we worked with to digital codes for documentation on the internet. We contrast this approach with others centred on the abstract values of light and shadow, based on Newtonian theory. We conclude with an Andean “theory of colour” in which the notions of primary and secondary colours are distinct from those in the light-based system. 2 Aïcha BACHIR BACHA*, Oscar Daniel LLANOS JACINTO** & Patricia LANDA** *EHESS, CeRAP, Paris; **Kurator taller de investigación, conservación y restauración, Lima “Reflections on the Paracas Textiles of Animas Altas, Ica, South Coast of Peru” To speak of the Paracas culture is to evoke the colorfulness and aesthetic and technical originality of its textiles. Although these textiles are known worldwide, many lack detailed documentation. On the one hand, various researchers show great interest in the investigation of the textiles attributed to early Paracas (800-600 BC), which are stylistically related to Cupisnique and Chavin, and on the other hand, to those that are assigned to Paracas Necrópolis, although many present an iconography that is clearly Nazca (50/100 BC-350/400 AD). The present paper attempts to fill in the gap by presenting the results of analysis related to the archaeological contexts, the manufacture and the symbolism of textiles recently discovered at Animas Altas, a major Paracas site, which is located on the lower Ica Valley and dates from 500 BC-150 AD. Special emphasis will be placed on the textiles discovered in the fills, on the floors’ surface and near of the structures’ walls, which were deposited by the Paracas people at moments of founding, renovating or closing civic-ceremonial buildings. Lena BJERREGAARD Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin “Sicán textiles from Pachacamac in the Ethnographic Museum of Berlin” Sicán culture flourished on the North Coast of Peru between 900-1100 AD producing resplendent arts in different media. The Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin has a large and hitherto unstudied collection of Sicán textiles excavated at the coastal oracle site of Pachacamac far to the south, where the conditions are more favorable for preservation. The collection includes many complete textiles as well as fragments collected by Wilhelm Gretzer, a German textile merchant, around the turn of the last century. Many of the tapestries depict the Sicán Deity or Lord, and an even larger number show a range of 3-dimentional plants, animals, religious or every-day activities like people tending to their crops, carrying bundles of produce or leading llamas used for transport. This paper will describe the characteristics of Sicán textiles and explain their weaving techniques as well as their clothing styles and iconography. The Department of Conservation and Scientific Research at the British Museum has identified the special green color that is so characteristic and unique for Sicán Textiles. I will also present a previously unidentified textile now identified as a woman’s hip cloth. Nathalie BOUCHERIE*, Witold NOVIK** & Dominique CARDON*** *Centre Interuniversitaire d'Histoire et Archéologie Médiévale, Université Lumière Lyon 2, **Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France, Paris & ***Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CIHAM, Lyon « Dyeing techniques and dyestuffs used in the Nasca culture (Peru): Research on forgotten lore” Nasca culture flourished in the Early Intermediate Period (ca. 200 BC – 700 AD) in the midst of the arid south coast of Peru. The Nasca have produced numerous textiles. Many of them 3 are of exceptional quality, with bright and varied colours. Indeed, polychromy seems to be a feature very important in Nasca representations, especially in fine ceramics and Early Nasca textiles. The Nasca dyers have probably developed many techniques and tested many raw materials in order to obtain fast and numerous colours: to place special emphasis on polychromy, they must reach the complete expertise of dyes. Nevertheless, no one knows but little about this theme. In these conditions, a huge study was carried out on Nasca natural dyes within the framework of a PhD. Dyes analysis were realized by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) on textile samples that are representative of Nasca production. This investigation has revealed the main characteristics of Nasca dyeing production: the selection of some specific dyestuffs, the development of particular techniques and recipes, and the evolution of these practices during time. Shelley A. BURIAN Emory University, Atlanta, USA “Mistakes as Innovations: Interrogating Creative Color Use in a North Potosí lliklla” (POSTER) This presentation is a case study of colour anomalies in a Bolivian lliklla (shawl) in the Llallagua style in the collection of Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum. A close examination of the piece revealed that it contained alterations to the weave with the wrong warp selected in small areas of the iskay pallay stripes. Although some of these changes were clearly unintentional, some were repeated to form a secondary design indicating they were a deliberate choice on the part of the weaver. The deliberate violation of pattern requirements in order to add a layer of meaning to a piece has a long history in Andean weaving. These alterations fit comfortably within that tradition through re-creating the colour contrasts seen between the larger sections of the pattern on the level of individual threads. Through this process the symbolic value of these contrasts (allqa and suwamari) becomes even more embedded in the piece. Caterina CAPPUCCINI, Thibaut DEVIESE & Catherine HIGGITT British Museum, London “Study of the Degradation of Andean Natural Organic Colorants: A Colorimetric and Analytical Study” (POSTER) Natural organic dyes are frequently highly fugitive and in studying archaeological textiles it is important to understand colorant degradation to interpret analytical results, explore possible changes in