The Paracas mantles
Some of the ancient world's finest textiles, from Peru's desert
In 1927 the Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello discovered the Wari Kayan necropolis on the Paracas Peninsula, with more than 400 funerary bundles holding mummies. The bodies were wrapped in dozens of embroidered cotton and alpaca-wool mantles showing deities, animals and masked figures, made in the last centuries BC. The dry desert preserved their bright colours, and the Paracas culture was the forerunner of the Nazca.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 2nd century BC
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 218 BC Hannibal crosses the Alps — 18 years earlier
- 216 BC Battle of Cannae — 16 years earlier
Asia
- 221 BC Qin Shi Huang unifies China — 21 years earlier
- c. 214 BC Great Wall of China — 14 years earlier
- 210 BC Terracotta Army — 10 years earlier
- 202 BC Founding of the Han dynasty — 2 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Hannibal (aged 47)
- Eratosthenes (aged 76)
- Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu of Han) (aged 56)
- Scipio Africanus (aged 36)
- Empress Lü (Lü Zhi) (aged 41)
- Cato the Elder (aged 34)
- Modu Chanyu (aged 34)