Unku with designs of stylized figures

The fine craftsmanship of the Huari textiles, an artistic tradition that originated in the Ayacucho region, is distinguished among other things, by a complex system of decorative elements, the decoding of which would have required highly specialized skills. Among reddish vertical bands this ceremonial tunic, made in the tapestry technique, has 48 stylized human figures with feline and camelid features carrying staffs and holding prisoners in a marked geometric composition. While no two are the same, they all seem to respond to the Personage of the Staffs, a recurring image in pre-Columbian Andean art, which would have had its origin in the northern highlands of Peru during the Chavín period. It is from this point that it would have spread to the Titicaca Basin as the central element of a religious doctrine. (CP)