This item is a Pre-Columbian Nazca ceremonial sling made out of multicolored Camelid fibres and woven with a large split pouch. Both ends have long tassels. This identifies it as a ceremonial piece. The lines are deep red in color. The leads are multicolored. The pouch is black with a small split and the outer rim is deep red in color as shown in the photo. The pouch is thicker than what you would find on a functional sling. This tump is clearly ceremonial and was probably a burial offering for someone who was important. This tump sling is complete and in very nice condition. Complete slings are very rare.

This sling was one of about 90 slings and tumps that was purchased by the Foliophiles Collection from the Parke Bernet Auction House (New York City) in 1965. The Parke Bernet Auction House was purchased by Sotheby's Auctions a few years later. The Foliophiles Collection brought the collection to The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. to be authenticated. Two slings were given to the museum. Thirty slings and tumps were sold between 1965 and 2002. I purchased the remainder of the collection when the owner of the Foliophiles Collection retired. I have been slowly selling the remainder of the collection to my customers. This sling can be legally marketed in the USA, but it cannot be exported. A copy of the letter proving that the date of acquisition was before the 1972 import ban will be provided to the purchaser upon receipt of payment. You should retain a copy of the letter as proof that your sling is legal to own in the USA.

The Nazca are most famous for their geoglyphs, line art located in the Nazca Desert, a high and arid plateau that stretches between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the pampa (a large flat area of southern Peru). The Nazca plain is virtually unique for its ability to preserve the markings upon it, due to the combination of the climate (one of the driest on Earth, with only twenty minutes of rainfall per year) and the flat, stony ground which minimizes the effects of the wind at ground level.

The Nazca are well known for their textiles. They began using massive quantities of llama and alpaca wool a thousand years before the north coast cultures began to esteem the camelid wool. The source of the wool is believed to be from the Ayacucho region. The motifs that appeared on the pottery appeared earlier in the textiles. Textiles may have been as important to other cultures in the region as to the Nazca, but the desert has preserved the textiles of both the Nazca and Paracas cultures and comprise most of what is known about early textiles in the region.