2000-Year-Old Pre-Incan Shroud Goes on Display in Peru

A rare and complex ancient Peruvian funeral shroud, some 2000 years old, is on display for the first time at a museum in Lima, Peru.

The shroud that pre-dates the Incan civilization is made of Alpaca wool. The shroud is part of  ancient Paracas textiles smuggled by a Swedish diplomat and now returned by the government some 80 years later.

The shroud of is complex and includes some 80 varied color tines and subtones that include green, blue, yellow, red and orange. It is separated in 32 frames that is decorated with items that resemble frogs, cats, corn, cassava, condors and human-like figures, according to the Associated Press.

The shroud,  which goes on display at the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History, is one of the four ancient Paracas textiles returned under the inter-governmental agreement, according to BCC. They were discovered in the Paracas Peninsular in the 1920s.  Nearly 89 of these ancient shrouds are housed in the Gothenburg City Museum.

The images on the well preserved shroud highlight the calendar of farming season and how it was sewn together remains a mystery. Sweden is due to return over 80 textiles by 2021.  Peru is one of the few countries in the world that have some well-preserved ancient fabrics.

"Despite being more than 2,000 years old, the colours of the Paracas textiles are still fantastic and well preserved........The textiles were naturally preserved in the salty sands of the Paracas but since its arrival in Gothenburg in the 1930's, the collection has been on display in a number of museum environments. As a result of exposure to UV light, oxygen and variations in humidity and temperature, the Paracas textiles have become brittle and fragile," reads a report by Sweden's National Museum of World Culture.