Siguas 1: a newly identified culture, Department of Arequipa, Peru

by

Joerg Haeberli

 

The presence of Siguas 1 was verified in 1997 at the looted burial ground of La Chimba, Sihuas Valley, department of Arequipa. The Siguas 1 culture, in the absence of identified decorated pottery, is defined through its textiles, engraved canes, pyroengraved gourds and petroglyphs. The temporal range of Siguas 1 based on ten 14C dates is 500 BC to AD 100. Textile techniques noted are (a) discontinuous double interlocking warp and weft, (b) interlocking tapestry, (c) cross-looping, (d) sprang, (e) warp faced plain weave, (f) simple looping, (g) oblique interlacing and (h) tie-dying. Discontinuous single interlocking warp and weft and slit tapestry have been noted. The use of these textile techniques, the earliest available dates for some, the twist of yarns and a possible source of camelid wool will be presented.

 

The iconography noted among textiles differs in thematic content from that of engraved canes, pyroengraved gourds and petroglyphs. Among the textile iconography to be discussed will be the Siguas Central Head Theme, representations of humans, both male and female, and variations of an ascending and descending step design. Three characteristic borderbands/edgings will be described that allow identification of many Siguas 1 textiles. They helped in the identification of two Siguas 1 mummies with an unusual hairdo, a hairdo also noted on early Nasca pottery.

 

What is emerging, based on 14C dates, textile techniques and aspects of iconography, is a flow of information between the valleys of Arequipa and the south coast, the nature of which has yet to be determined. Examples will be presented.

 

 

Joerg Haeberli by training is an organic chemist (Ph.D. 1960, Brown U.). Since retiring he has identified seven textile traditions (Siguas 1, 2, 3, Arequipa early Nasca, Siguas-early Nasca, Siguas 3-Nasca, provincial Pukara), three of which (Siguas 1, 3, Arequipa early Nasca) were verified in the field at La Chimba, department of Arequipa. The findings will be published under "Tiempo y tradición en Arequipa, Perú, y el surgimiento de la cronología del Tema de la Deidad Central" in Huari y Tiwanaku/Modelos y Evidencias, Parte 2, Boletín de Antropología 5 (2001). Some of the findings were presented at the 18th (1999) and 19th (2000) Annual Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory and at a Dumbarton Oaks tertulia (2000). Earlier publications are: "Twelve Nasca Panpipes" in Ethnomusicology (1979), "The Brooklyn Museum Textile No.38.121" in Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society (1995) and with Colin McEwan "Ancestors Past but Present" in Precolumbian Gold (2000).