ideas across the mountainous Andean region. This frag- ment, for example, bears imagery that closely resembles relief carvings at Chavín de Huántar, an important religious center in the northern highlands, yet it was found on the South Coast, hundreds of miles from that ritual center, and was created in the twilight of Chavín de Huántar’s power, around 300 bce. In the centuries following the decline of Chavín de Huántar, related textile traditions 昀氀ourished on the South Coast. Indeed, large-scale rectangular mantles (some nine feet long) made in this region during the last century or two bce and the 昀椀rst few centuries of the Common Era are among the most spectacular textiles known from the ancient Andes. In 1925, Peruvian archaeologist Julio C. Tello and colleagues excavated over four hundred funer- ary bundles at Cerro Colorado, on the Paracas Peninsula. Here, individuals had been interred wrapped in multiple layers of 昀椀ne- and plain-cloth mantles and other garments. Weavers from the Paracas culture (800–100 bce) employed camelid wool imported from the highlands (llamas and alpacas do not thrive on the coast). Notably, this material could be dyed into vibrant colors, and Paracas artists embroidered polychrome animals, plants, and supernatural 昀椀gures using stem stitch, often on cotton plain cloth (昀椀g. 4). Occasionally, they also embroidered the background, as seen on a border fragment featuring a being with large eyes, carrying a staff (昀椀g. 5). Here, fol- lowing a convention established centuries earlier, a single 昀椀gural motif is reversed and repeated, with inventive color alternations of deep blue, red, and yellow. Weavers from the succeeding Nasca culture (100– 700 ce), also on the South Coast, drew on this icono- Fig. 5. graphic tradition of 昀椀gural compositions, but over time Paracas artist. Border fragment with 昀椀gures carrying staves. Cerro Colorado, Peru, 4th–3rd century bce. Camelid 昀椀ber, 19 × 4 in. (48.3 × 10.2 cm). The Metropolitan they interpreted subjects in new ways that celebrate the Museum of Art, New York, Gift of George D. Pratt, 1933 (33.149.43) Fig. 4. Paracas artist. Border fragment with 昀椀gures. Paracas Peninsula, Peru, 5th–2nd century bce. Cotton, camelid 昀椀ber, 6 ⼀最 × 41 ⼀欀 in. (17.1 × 105.1 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Arthur M. Bullowa, 1993 (1994.35.120) 9