"Mummy bundle" head or "false head", Late Intermediate Period, ca. 1100 - 1400 AD ·  Peru, Chancay · ID: 3052312

Description

in acrylic glass display case

Textile cover made of coarse woven cream-white cotton and camelid fibres (alpaca or llama), cushion-like filling of raw cotton, grasses and leaves, face marked with red paint, eyes and nose (sheet metal) applied.

Chancay mummies were tightly wrapped in a seated position with yards and yards of cloth, creating drum- to cylinder-shaped “mummy bundles” (“fardo”). These were propped upright in the tomb and often had a ‘false head’, clothes, and accessories to portray the person within.

Comparing literature

Hoffmann, Ulrich (Hg.), Frauen des alten Amerika in Kult und Alltag, Stuttgart 2001, p. 137

Notices

This object is subject to the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Protection Act. Export documents are required for export (subjected to a fee).