Cleveland Museum of Art

Textile Fragment

Date

c. 50–650 CE

Medium

cotton and camelid fiber

Culture

Peru, Moche, north coast

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This fragment, one of several in the collection, is a rare survivor of catastrophic rains that destroyed much of the Moche textile legacy and may have helped to bring about the decline of Moche culture. It depicts a serpent and a snail beneath a hovering raptorial bird—perhaps a snail kite, a type of hawk named after its favored food. The size of the motifs implies that the original textile was large; a mantle (a shawl-like garment) or a hanging are among the possibilities. This fragment is a rare survivor of floods that destroyed much of the Moche textile record.

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