Peru, South Coast, Ica Valley, Ocucaje site?, Paracas people / 400–200 BCE
Tunic
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Tunic as textile (Peru, South Coast, Ica Valley, Ocucaje site?, Paracas people · 400–200 BCE).
The red dyes in this tunic likely come from madder root.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this textile as looped camelid fiber.
The museum's collection notes: The striking, large-scale figure shown on this tunic has an elaborate, monkey-like tail as well as head appendages that mark the creature as supernatural. This tunic, a relatively rare type, was made not on a loom but rather by working the yarns into loops with a needle. It is made entirely with camelid fiber, which can readily be dyed in a range of vivid colors. The fiber comes from one of the four camels (camelids) native to the Andes Mountains—the alpaca and llama, both domesticated, and the wild guanaco and vicuña. On the coast, it represents a prestige import.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtTunicOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.