Chancay Chuspa or Coca Leaf Bag with Bird-Motif Strap

Narrow stripes in cream and tan on a dark ground, and a strap where the birds have all the fun.

This chuspa, or coca leaf bag with bird-motif strap, is Chancay, from Peru, and dates to 1000 to 1470 CE. It is wool. Small bags like this were made across the Andes to carry coca leaves, chewed there for thousands of years, and the Chancay of the central coast were prolific weavers. The rectangular body is woven in dark brown with fine vertical stripes of cream, gray and tan. The strap carries a row of stylized birds in red and cream on brown. It is 13 inches wide and 8.3 long.

Five centuries on, the birds are still keeping formation.