Tunic

Although ancient Andean textiles remain virtually unknown to the North American public, there is no doubt that the fiber arts played a pre-eminent role in the indigenous cultures that flowered in western South America before the sixteenth-century European invasions. Thousands of well-preserved examples survive to make up the longest, most complete textile record in the world. In the Andean area, the widespread use of textiles preceded that of fired ceramics by at least a thousand years, and …

The conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés took place between 1519 and 1521. In the years immediately following, the newly arrived Spanish overlords methodically searched for riches in the rugged terrain and diverse ethnic pockets of their recently acquired domains. Of particular interest to those conquerors were gold, silver, and other exploitable sources of quick wealth and lofty position. Thanks to the Spaniards’ propensity for recordkeeping—the indigenous inhabitants of Mexico were the best …