Like their Paracas predecessors, the Nazca people made fine textiles of coastal cotton and highland alpaca wool embroidered with designs in many bright colours depicting mythological subjects.
Most textiles were woven on small looms - often the backstrap loom which was fastened to a support at one end while a belt at other end passed around the weaver's back.
However, a giant piece of plain cotton cloth discovered at the Nazca centre of Cahuachi, measuring more that 20 ft (7m) across, was too large to have been woven on an individual loom. It was probably made on a ground loom by a team working together passing the shuttle across from each individual to her neighbour.
Textiles were highly valued by all the South American cultures: taxes were paid in textiles in the later Inca state and textiles were used as a medium of exchange. Spinning, weaving and associated tasks engaged a large part of the time of all Andean women.
