Inca Checkerboard Textile Panel with Tocapus

Southern Highlands, Ca. 1400 to 1532 AD A large and vibrant surviving panel, probably from a tunic.   The rhythmic checkered patterns and tocapu stars were believed to represent the structure and order of the Inca Empire. The checkerboard pattern symbolized the division of the empire into four quadrants, while the tocapu stars represented the sun, a central deity in Inca cosmology.    The textiles were considered sacred and believed to have a connection to the divine. They were often used in religious ceremonies and rituals, and some were even buried with the deceased as offerings to the gods. This tocapu eight-pointed star motif, also known as the "Inca cross," was a powerful symbol of the sun and the Inca Empire. It represented the four cardinal directions, the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), and the four levels of the cosmos (heaven, earth, underworld, and the Milky Way).    The checkered pattern, often combined with the tocapu star motif, symbolized the orderly and str