Garments bearing this design could thus communicate the status of their wearer and possibly other information as well. Scholars suggest that individual t’oqapu may have represented specific peoples, places, or things, thus constituting a sign system akin to the knotted khipu cords that the Inkas used to record information. Another is a miniature representation of a black-and-white checkerboard tunic with a red collar. A common t’oqapu design, depicted here in alternating red and yellow, consists of a diagonal bar between two dots. Created in a variety of patterns and colors, t’oqapu may have held special meaning or significance. Unlike other Inka tunics, this one is almost entirely covered with small rectangular geometric units called t’oqapu. Fine qompi cloth was the task of specialists, and the best cloth, used for royal and religious functions, was made by cloistered women known as acllacuna. Textiles were valued more highly than gold in the Inka Empire, and much effort went into their production. It has warps of undyed cotton and wefts of dyed camelid fiber spun so fine and woven so tight that they number between 98 and 108 per centimeter. Typical of Inca tunics, it was woven as one long rectangle of cloth with a neck slit in the middle and then folded in half and the sides sewn up to the arm holes. This tapestry tunic is one of the finest known Inka royal textiles.
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