Fig. 3. Chavín artist. Textile fragment. Ica Valley region, Peru, 4th–3rd century bce. Cotton, re昀椀ned iron earth pigments, 5 ⼀最 × 12 ⼀攀 in. (14.6 × 31.1 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Jane Costello Goldberg, from the Collection of Arnold I. Goldberg, 1986 (1987.394.704) Andean 昀椀ber arts are notable for their exceptional Likely woven on backstrap looms, early cotton plain range, from basic weaving structures to inventive tech- weaves were sometimes embellished with painted imag- nologies unique to the region, including discontinuous ery. One example from the fourth or third century bce has warp and weft weaving. The great majority of textiles that a fanged, supernatural 昀椀gure with raptor claws encircled have survived to the present day are garments or other by octagons painted with a red iron pigment (昀椀g. 3). These elements of attire such as headcloths. Despite our pro- serpentine forms terminate in pro昀椀le heads, one upside pensity to display these objects on a wall as if they were down in a mirror image, that together form a new head paintings, they must also be considered in light of their with a fanged mouth. The composition would have been original function as dress worn on the body and animated repeated across the textile in an in昀椀nity pattern—that is, a through movement. theoretically boundless continuation of imagery. This prac- Arguably the oldest art forms in the Andes, cloth and tice of creating a pattern from a reversed and repeated cordage predate ceramics by at least a millennium. The motif endured for another thousand years. Easy to trans- earliest evidence for textiles dates back some 12,000 port, textiles were an ideal medium for the exchange of years to the Guitarrero Cave, located in the Callejón de Huaylas in the highlands of Peru.4 Unsurprisingly, the tex- tile record is more abundant on Peru’s desert coast, as dry conditions enable the preservation of natural 昀椀bers. This record has allowed scholars to study the evolution of textile technologies and design. Such techniques as looping, netting, twining, and plain weave likely emerged from 昀椀ber technologies developed to create 昀椀shing nets, bags, and other functional items needed to exploit the rich marine resources of the Humboldt Current. Highly portable backstrap looms, where the tension of the warps (the vertical threads) is controlled by the weaver leaning backward or forward, were in use by at least 1500 bce. 8