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Textile Fragment
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This fragment, one of several in the collection, is a rare survivor of catastrophic rains that destroyed much of the Moche textile legacy and may have helped to bring about the decline of Moche culture. It depicts a serpent and a snail beneath a hovering raptorial bird—perhaps a snail kite, a type of hawk named after its favored food. The size of the motifs implies that the original textile was large; a mantle (a shawl-like garment) or a hanging are among the possibilities.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineTextile Fragment, c. 50–650 CE. Peru, Moche, north coast. Cotton and camelid fiber; overall: 38.7 x 29.3 cm (15 1/4 x 11 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2007.2.3
