ancient South American culture
Paracas, culture centred on the peninsula of the same name, located in present-day southern Peru in the vicinity of Ica, during the Early Horizon and the Early Intermediate periods (c. 900 bc–ad 400). The Paracas culture’s earlier phase, called Paracas Cavernas, is related to the Chavín culture (c. 1000–400 bc). The pottery of the period is not well-fired and was sometimes painted after firing. The Paracas cultures of the middle Early Intermediate Period (c. ad 1–400) are referred to as the Paracas Pinilla and the Paracas Necrópolis phases. These periods show an improvement in pottery making. The Paracas Necrópolis people were named for and described by the study of cemeteries discovered at Cerro Colorado. The people wrapped the mummified corpses of their deceased, along with funeral offerings, in embroidered cloaks, which are among the finest examples of the art of textile making. The multicoloured designs on these textiles bear a definite relationship to those of painted pottery of the contemporaneous and later Nazca culture. These people also engaged in artificial deformation of the skull by binding the skull in infancy.
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earliest highly developed culture in pre-Columbian Peru, which flourished between about 900 and 200 bc. During this time Chavín artistic influence spread throughout the northern and central parts of what is now Peru. The name given to this early civilization derives from the great ruin of...
There is a considerable area on the south Peruvian coast with its focus in the Ica Valley, where strong influences from Chavín have been found in the Paracas pottery style, and two painted textiles in pure Chavín style have survived from the same valley. Paracas pottery was very different from that of Chavín, but various motifs have enabled the two to be correlated closely....
South of the Chavín region, another high culture developed around the Paracas Peninsula. This civilization produced a famous thin-walled pottery and some of the most extraordinary textiles in existence. Great woven mantles, ponchos, and small tapestries were created between 1000 and 250 bc.