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Pied Beauty: Wari Tie-Dye Textiles (Ca. 425–1100)

Patchwork, tie-dye textiles comprising some of the most extraordinary examples of Andean fabric art known to us.

When the lords of the Inca were forced to send tribute to the Spanish, they made their payments, in part, in panes de grana — “cakes” or “loaves” of the cactus-eating cochineal beetle ( magno or macnu in Quechua), which when pulverized and mixed with mordant produces a blood-red pigment whose intensity was unrivaled by anything previously known to Europeans. Colonial accounts and archaeological finds offer a glimpse of this complexity: regimented and ritualized dyestuff harvesting, designated “chosen women” ( aklla) tasked with weaving for the Inca ruler, and selectively bred alpacas and llamas capable of producing finer wool than any breed found today. Between their ascent in the seventh century and their polity’s collapse for unclear reasons around the turn of the millennium, the Wari (also spelled Huari) crafted a range of extraordinary textiles that testified to their society’s material wealth, technological prowess, and high degree of centralization.

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