The arid climate of the Andean coast allowed for a relatively important quantity of textiles to be preserved until our days, enabling us to carry out a reconstruction of the textile art of the last five thousand years.

It is therefore nor surprising to come across specimens today - such as the one documented here - which have retained great part of what must have been their original colouring. In this specific case, the chromatic range which was used, especially the combination of red, yellow and a particular tone of blue, recalls the Ica style, which developed mainly in the valley of the same name and the surrounding region approximately between the years AD 1000 and 1470.

On the other hand, the main decorative pattern, called interlocking and which consists in schematic figures of serpents with serrated edges which interlock with each other, was more frequent in the central region of the coast. This piece seems thus to blend features from the textile styles developed in both regions - central coast and southern coast - during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000 - 1470).

The fabric was made with cotton wefts and camelid fibre warps, an element that is more common in the textiles of the central and northern coasts of this period.

The horizontal direction of the decoration may indicate that this is a fragment of a feminine piece, probably a shawl os lliclla, since many studies have demonstrated the association between horizontal axes and woman in the Andean pre-Hispanic world. It is worth noting that this association is still currently in practice in traditional communities of the Andes.