2-746-697 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Two Textile Fragment with Fanged Heads, 500-200 BC. These two rare fragments, of equal size and mounted side-by-side, each feature fanged heads that are connected by a vertical fanged mouth band and ascend as a column above a large, disembodied eye. Though found on Peru's desert South Coast, the textiles imagery and style are from Chavín, a site in Peru's distant mountains where there developed a religion so appealing that it spread into many other areas. Such heads are associated with Chavín divinities, but little more can be said of their meaning. The textiles may have served as wall hangings either in temples or the residences of elite people tied to Chavín religion.