selvages to give more or less attention to the closing of the space between the weaving proper and the heading strip. When the warps in the form of a skein had been spread out evenly and bound in place to the end bars, the ancient weavers on two-bar looms first wove a shallow heading strip to secure the warps in their positions and to establish the ultimate width of the fabric, a practice followed by some modern weavers today. Then the weaver reversed the loom end for end to begin what became the weaving proper, and continued until the length was complete. Difficulties or indifference to appearance very often resulted in a general looseness of texture where standard-size tools had to be removed and the interlacing done more or less by the fingers. Plate 2,a, b shows heading strips of different depths, fairly wide join areas in which the wefts are more widely spaced, and above these, the compact texture of the weaving proper.

Three finely woven cloths, one of them shown in plate 5,d, exemplify warp locking, end-to-end. This technique is known from the earliest periods on the coast in the so-called patchworks from Nazca Valley graves. It occurs also in Middle- and Late-period textiles.[5] The methods of lengthening the warps by the addition of new ones vary, but one feature is common to all those examined: the supplementary transverse yarns are in effect scaffold or skeleton wefts.[6] In the Chincha cloths, the two warps interlock as shown in the reconstruction in plate 5,a. In two Chincha plain-weave cloths, as in the Nazca patchworks, the warps of two colors meet on the skeleton weft.

Two specimens in lot 4- (3890a and 4056) are poor in quality of craftsmanship. Careless weaving resulted in the breaking of several warps, uneven shedding, and puckering in the center of the web. A three-inch difference in the length between the two side edges of specimen 4-4056 was probably due to slanting of the warping stakes (fig.6). There is also a difference between the widths of the ends of each cloth, in one of them as much as three inches. Different weights of yarn are used, their twists ranging from soft-to-medium to crepe.

4-4056

Fig. 6. Diagram of a web showing an irregular shape which may have resulted from careless warping. Occurrences of plain-weave variations are indicated by symbols for units: , one-by-one; , one-by-two; , two-by-one; and , two-by-two (27 in. × 26 in. over all).

In specimen 4-3890a the warps were grouped in pairs throughout the breadth of the cloth. In the first eight and one-half inches of the length, the weft is single and for the remaining fifteen and one-half inches the wefts are paired. This results in plain-weave variations of two-by-one, or semibasket weave, and two-by-two, or basket weave.

In setting up the loom for specimen 4-4056, twelve inches of the breadth were warped with units of single 2-ply warp yarns (fig.6, right) and the remaining fourteen inches were set up for units of twin warps (fig.6, left). Several plain-weave variations were found. The weaver introduced single and twin wefts at irregular intervals throughout the length of the cloth. Therefore, in the portion where the single warp unit interlaces with single wefts, a simple one-by-one, or plain weave results; where the single warp unit interlaces with twin wefts, a one-by-two, or semibasket weave occurs. In the portion of the breadth where warps are paired, interlacings of two-by-one, or semibasket weave, and two-by-two, or basket weave, occur.

Owing to the difference in length between the two side edges of specimen 4-4056, the weaver started making adjustments before she had woven half the length of her cloth. In order to restore a working edge at right angles to her warps, she introduced incomplete or fill-in wefts; that is, weft yarns entered on the long side and carried a distance across the web and then turned back in the next shed (pl. 8,a). The largest number of fill-in wefts occurs roughly at a point about a third up from the end. Here, seven wefts were introduced, one after the other, all entering from the same side of the web (pl. 5,e). The distance across the web that these various wefts were carried ranges from ten to twenty inches. At each turning point of the weft there is a kelim slit.

STITCHERY

Three very familiar needle techniques occur on the Chincha plain-weave cloths. Breadths are seamed together with whipping stitches or running stitches, or are laced together with the antique seam, often called the baseball stitch (pl. 8,d). The effects vary with the depth and tightness of the seaming. Some of the whipping stitches are left loose so the two breadths lie flat, their selvages barely touching; other stitches are drawn so tightly that the selvages form a ridge (pl. 5,b). The smallest stitches are taken under two or three warps less than one-eighth inch deep and about one-eighth inch apart. Deeper stitches found on the coarse wrappings and one bag (4-3889) range from a quarter-inch to three-eighths of an inch in depth and the same distances apart.

The baseball stitch, if well done, can bring the selvages of two breadths together in a flat seam (pl. 5,d). The Chincha types range from very loosely drawn to tightly drawn threads.

Running and