3.2.1. Purple

All the purple samples contained indigoids, likely obtained by applying the indigo vat process to yarns (or textiles) previously dyed red; this is definitely the case for the tie-dyed discontinuous warp and weft Wari textiles, as indicated by one yarn sample that was red on one end and purple on the other (Figure 2a). The purple sample from the frayed Wari band (2003.40.5) was the only one containing both indigo and cochineal, as shown by the presence of carminic acid that was detected by both PS-MS and by HPLC. All of the other purples, from the Paracas mummies to the Nazca cross-knit looped border fragments, contained plant reds consistent with *Relbunium*. Interestingly, this also included the Wari discontinuous warp and weft textiles with tie-dye patterning. While cochineal was available to the Wari and widely used in other textiles, perhaps the unique construction and preparation of these textiles precluded its use for some reason. No evidence of brominated indigoids obtained from shellfish were observed in any of the chromatographic or mass spectrometric results, save for a single analysis early on that indicated a trace of dibromoindigo by positive ion DART-MS, which could not be reproduced. Wallert and Boytner [8] also noted the surprising absence of dibromoindigo in purple samples from the south coast of Peru, near the source of the shellfish from which

the dye is obtained. Saltzman [2], however, believed that shellfish purple was utilized in the preparation of Andean textiles; the use of these purples was confirmed by studies carried out by Michel et al. [18], showing brominated indigoids attributed to the use of *Concholepus concholepus.*

(**b**)

**Figure 2.** Examples of some of the yarn samples collected for analysis. (**a**) Red and purple yarn from MCCM 2002.1.148, a discontinuous warp and weft textile, showing evidence of overdyeing to achieve the purple color. (**b**) Brown warp yarn from MCCM 2004.64.1 from the Lambayeque textile, showing plying of two shades of brown cotton yarn.
