Tassel
500/900
Nazca South coast, Peru
Peru
Woven tassels were worn in pairs, attached to a long cord that wrapped around a person’s head, with one tassel falling to each side. Several dozen of these large and elaborately patterned tassels are known, all with the same shape and structure. The tassels were made via a complex technique that produced multiple interconnected layers and mirror-image symmetry. The complexity of Nazca textiles like these far exceeds functional or representational requirements, suggesting that there is symbolic meaning embedded in the structure itself.
Wool (camelid), oblique interlinked and interlaced warp (sprang); cross-knit looping over folded unworked warps; sides joined with wool (camelid) in overcast stitch