Tapestry-Woven Textiles from Castillo de Huarmey, Peru and the Wari-Huarmey Textile Tradition

Peruvian tapestries are prestige textiles, known for their mosaic-like patterns made of multicoloured yarns. Numerous tapestry fragments from the Middle Horizon Period (650-1050 A.D.) were found at the Castillo de Huarmey archaeological site on the North Coast of Peru, where an intact Wari royal mausoleum was discovered. Relying on technological and iconographical analyses and, also on the context of the entire textile collection, a new Middle Horizon tradition associated with the expansion of Wari culture is proposed.