Room 10, Vitrine 131
Textile
Peruvian Central Coast
Imperial Epoch (1300 AD – 1532 AD)
ML800002
This head became part of the Larco Museum collection around the middle of the 20th century. Its characteristics indicate that it once formed part of an enormous Chancay funerary bundle, similar to others which have been discovered during later excavations.
Some bundles include components known as “false heads”, which were made from reeds, fiber and cloth and then painted and adorned with metal decorations. The aim of this practice was to create the face of the ancestor of the social group to which the deceased belonged. The preparation of these mortuary elements propitiated the process of transformation of the deceased into a communal ancestor.