Tocapu
Also: t'oqapu, toqapu
Tocapu are small geometric designs woven into squares or bands on Inka textiles, especially tunics; their meaning has not been deciphered.
Tocapu (also spelled t'oqapu or toqapu) are small geometric designs, usually set in squares, woven into Inka textiles. They appear most often as the waistband of a standard tunic and, in colonial pictures, on garments of the Sapa Inca, the ruler.
Can they be read?
No reading is accepted. Scholars have debated since the 1970s whether tocapu were a form of writing, heraldry or decoration. A 2004 study of the portraits in Guaman Poma's Nueva corónica proposed that some tocapu were tied to specific rulers, and called its own results preliminary. The Dumbarton Oaks all-tocapu tunic is the most extreme surviving example.
Where do they appear?
The Cleveland Museum of Art calls the t'oqapu waistband and deep V-yoke standard decorations of Inka unku. They continued into the colonial period, mixed with new motifs.
Sources
- Half Tunic (1951.393). The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Eeckhout and Danis on tocapu in Guaman Poma (2004). Boletín de Arqueología PUCP
- The Mystery Behind an Incan Tunic. Harvard Magazine
See also
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