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Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru
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Four-cornered Hat
Wari; 7th–10th century
Cotton, cane, feathers; H. 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm)
Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund 41.228
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A hat with a square flat top was the most distinctive head cover for men of status during the period in which the Wari people controlled a large part of present-day Peru. The hats usually have upright peaks projecting from the corners; they are now missing on this example. Commonly made with brightly dyed yarns using a knotting technique, the hats have both geometric designs and designs derived from religious iconography. This hat is one of only a few known examples constructed of a cane framework covered with cotton cloth to which feather mosaic was applied. The colorful feathers, probably from coastal and rain-forest birds, were precut to form the design. The four sides of the hat are divided into quarters filled with diamonds and the fanged puma heads in profile repeated at the diagonal. The colors of the triangles in the grid on the top also repeat diagonally.
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