Cleveland Museum of Art

Mummy Bundle "Mask"

Date

200–1 BCE

Medium

cotton: plain warp-faced cloth, painted

Culture

Peru, South Coast, Ica Valley, Ocucaje site, Paracas style

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The Paracas people buried their dead in pear-shaped mummy bundles, created by carefully wrapping the seated human body in layers of garments and other textiles. Sometimes a painted cloth was placed on the outer layer at the top of the bundle, as though it served as the bundle’s face, head, or “mask.” Some cloths were painted with masklike faces, although others—such as this example—feature complete figures, which may be mythological beings with supernatural appendages. These masks fall into two categories, those with only a face and those with a full-bodied figure.

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