page_title: Textile arts of indigenous peoples of the Americas
section_title: Andes
hierarchical_section_title: Textile arts of indigenous peoples of the Americas / Cultural regions / Andes
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Farbbild eines Quipu der Inkas vom Larco Museum English: An Inca quipu, from the Larco Museum in Lima
context_page_description: Textile arts of indigenous peoples of the Americas are decorative, utilitarian, ceremonial, or conceptual artworks made from plant, animal, or synthetic fibers by native peoples of both North and South America.
  Textile arts and fiber arts include fabric that is flexible woven material, as well as felt, bark cloth, knitting, embroidery, featherwork, skin-sewing, beadwork, and similar media. Textile arts are one of the earliest known industries. Basketry is associated with textile arts.
  While humans have created textiles since the dawn of culture, many are fragile and disintegrate rapidly. Ancient textiles are preserved only by special environmental conditions. The oldest known textiles in the Americas are some early fiberwork found in Guitarrero Cave, Peru dating back to 10,100 to 9,080 BCE.
  The oldest known textiles in North America are twine and plain weave fabrics preserved in a peat pond at the Windover Archaeological Site in Florida, the earliest dating to 6,000 BCE.
context_section_description: As previously mentioned, fragments of rope and textiles dating back between 12,100 and 11,080 years ago have been unearthed from Guitarrero Cave in Peru. Because of the extremely dry conditions of the desert sands, twined textiles from the Norte Chico civilization in Peru have survived, dating back to 2500-1800 BCE. Cotton and wool from alpaca, llamas, and vicuñas have been woven into elaborate textiles for thousands of years in the Andes and are still important parts of Quechua and Aymara culture today. Coroma in Antonio Quijarro Province, Bolivia is a major center for ceremonial textile production. An Aymara elder from Coroma said, "In our sacred weavings are expressions of our philosophy, and the basis for our social organization... The sacred weavings are also important in differentiating one community, or ethnic group, from a neighboring group..." Aguayos are clothes woven from camelid fibers with geometric designs that Andean women wear and use for carrying babies or goods.
  Inca textiles
  Awasaka was the most common grade of weaving produced by the Incas of all the ancient Peruvian textiles, this was the grade most commonly used in the production of Inca clothing. Awaska was made from llama or alpaca wool and had a high thread count (approximately 120 threads per inch). Thick garments made from awaska were worn as standard amongst the lower-classes of the Andean highlands, while lighter cotton clothing was produced on the warmer coastal lowlands. Peruvian Pima cotton, as used by the Incas, is still regarded as one of the finest cottons available on today’s market.
  The finest Inca textiles were reserved for the nobility and the royalty, including the emperor himself. This cloth, known as qompi, was of exceptionally high quality and required a specialized and state-run body of dedicated workers. Qompi was made from the finest materials available, alpaca, particularly baby alpaca, and vicuña wool were used to create elaborate and richly decorated items. As a result of their smoothness, Inca textiles made of vicuña fiber are described as "silk" by the first Spanish explorers. Remarkably, the finest Inca cloth had a thread count of more than 600 threads per inch, higher than that found in contemporaneous European textiles and not excelled anywhere in the world until the industrial revolution in the 19th century.
caption: An Inca quipu, or textile recording device
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