Item TB192
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The price of this item will be reduced each week until it is sold. The current price is listed on the South American Artifacts link. Instructions for ordering can be found on the How to Order web page. Please read the legal notice regarding the sale of pre-Columbian artifacts. |
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This item is pair of old Nazca ( Nasca ) Tumpline cords. Sometimes, pre-Columbian slings are called tumps or tumplines, but tumplines are much larger than slings. They are constructed using the same weaving technology and they have a pouch in the middle of the weave, just like you would find on a sling. However, tumplines are used to carry heavy loads over rough terrain. The long heavy cords are used to tie a load of cargo (food, wood, etc.) to be carried on the back. The wide section at the center (pouch) of the tump is used to support the load on the forehead. These two tumpline cords are between 1,500 and 2,000 years old and they are too fragile to use for anything except for display purposes. The longer cord has several knots and both have some fraying and deterioration because of age. Length = 242 cm + 306 cm ; Weight = 211 gm The Nazca ( or Nasca ) people of Sourthern Peru are the ancestors of the famous Incas. The Nazca lived in a system of valleys in what is currently Southern Peru between 200 BC and 600 AD. The Nazcas developed from the earlier Paracas culture. Since the Nazca were a coastal people who depended on the sea for their livelihood, archaeologists are fortunate that the Nazca portrayed aspects of their everyday lives in and on their pottery and textiles. Much of their art was influenced by the Moche culture. The motifs generally found on these artifacts are those of animals and plants used and seen by the ancient people. These include sea birds, hummingbirds, whales, sharks, fish, snakes, seeds, flowers, and cacti. Nazca religious art portrays a wide range of fantastic half-human, half-animal creatures, thought to be symbols of the most fearsome creatures inhabiting the earth, sky, and water. Also, more gruesomely, the Nazca portrayed disembodied heads, presumed to be trophy heads, on their pottery. The Nazca are most famous for the Nazca 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 minimises the effect 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. |
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