Wari / Inca tocapu (article alert)

Neue Erkenntnisse zum Tocapu-Symbolsystem am Beispiel eines Männerhemdes der Inkazeit in der Altamerika-Sammlung des Linden Museum / Christiane Clados
(A Key Checkerboard Pattern Tunic of the Linden-Museum Stuttgart: First Steps in Breaking the Tocapu Code?)

Tribus: Jahrbuch des Linden-Museums, Band 56 (2007), pp. 71-106.

Left: unku con tocapu de "llave" / Foto: Yukata Yoshii
[source]

"The tocapu symbol system of Wari and Inca cultures belongs to the most impressive aspects of material culture of prehispanic South America. Although progress has been done in the past years the meaning and function of the tocapus remains unclear. This chapter presents new results about tocapus by analyzing a fragment of an Inca key checkerboard pattern tunic of the Linden Museum Stuttgart (Linden-Museum Stuttgart, Germany, 1167.771) which up to now has never been discussed in former publications ... It is a Quompi weaving.

"Consistent with the results of the iconographic analysis the author suggests an interpretation of the Inca key checkerboard pattern tunic of the Linden Museum in relation to representations of (mythical) serpents." -- Excerpted from Abstract