This item is a Pre-Columbian Nazca sling made out of dyed camelid fibres and woven with a large split pouch. The pouch was made out of four braided segments using both light and dark camelid fibres. The segments are sewn together, except betwen the inner two segments and this forms an attractive split pouch. The ends of the pouch is sewn to braided circular segments, also using dark and light camelid fibres. These segments are sewn to different weaves, one of which terminates intoa whip end. One of the segments is damaged, but not separated It is in overall good condition considering its age of 1,500 - 2,000 years. This sling ( tump ) was purchased in a New York City auction house in 1965 and it can be legally marketed in the USA, but it cannot be exported. Provenance proving that the date of acquisition was prior to the 1972 import ban will be provided to the purchaser upon payment.

The Nazca are most famous for their geoglyphs, line art located in the Nazca Desert, a high and arid plateau that stretches between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the pampa (a large flat area of southern Peru). The Nazca plain is virtually unique for its ability to preserve the markings upon it, due to the combination of the climate (one of the driest on Earth, with only twenty minutes of rainfall per year) and the flat, stony ground which minimizes the effects of the wind at ground level.

The Nazca are well known for their textiles. They began using massive quantities of llama and alpaca wool a thousand years before the north coast cultures began to esteem the camelid wool. The source of the wool is believed to be from the Ayacucho region. The motifs that appeared on the pottery appeared earlier in the textiles. Textiles may have been as important to other cultures in the region as to the Nazca, but the desert has preserved the textiles of both the Nazca and Paracas cultures and comprise most of what is known about early textiles in the region.