Work Basket
1000-1476
Medium
Reed, dyed split reed, and plied cotton
Dimensions
30.5 × 11.4 × 14 cm (12 × 4 1/2 × 5 1/2 in.)
Classification
sewing baskets
Department
Textiles
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
85586
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In central and southern coastal Peru, archaeologists have unearthed a variety of weaving tools and work baskets. These are often found in women’s burials, which suggests that spinning yarn and weaving textiles were the domain of women. This basket was probably made for a weaver to hold tools used in making textiles, such as needle cases, needles, spindles, and combs.
About the Artist
Chancay
The Chancay were a pre-Columbian culture that flourished along the central coast of Peru, in the valleys of the Huaura, Chancay, Chillón, and surrounding rivers, from approximately 1000 to 1470 CE. Emerging after the decline of the Wari civilization, the Chancay developed a distinctive artistic identity that set them apart from their Andean contemporaries, one defined above all by extraordinary ma...