Very fine and delicate pre-Columbian textile in a gauze-like weave with discontinuous warp and weft. a.d. 200 - 800. The design is likely an abstract zoomorphic representation - possibly a bird-like creature. Gauze-weave textiles are well represented in the Andean textile lexicon, but are almost never this finely made and colorful or of this structure and age. a fragment of a textile strip, it retains its full loom width. It's not clear how much longer it was originally. It was likely woven as a head cloth or turban-like wrap. As it is, the size is 5.5 x 24 inches. Of indeterminate origin, this example is most likely a South Coast Nasca culture or regional weaving with possible Wari influence. It has been beautifully conserved to a backing cloth and is ready for mounting on a stretcher. There are very few examples of this particular kind of gauze-weave textile extant. It is a subtlety beautiful and sophisticated Andean textile that is well worth collecting.