Pied Beauty: Wari Tie-Dye Textiles (Ca. 425–1100)
(publicdomainreview.org)
When the lords of the Inca were forced to send tribute to the Spanish, they made their payments, in part, in panes de grana — “cakes” or “loaves” of the cactus-eating cochineal beetle (magno or macnu in Quechua), which when pulverized and mixed with mordant produces a blood-red pigment whose intensity was unrivaled by anything previously known to Europeans.
When the lords of the Inca were forced to send tribute to the Spanish, they made their payments, in part, in panes de grana — “cakes” or “loaves” of the cactus-eating cochineal beetle (magno or macnu in Quechua), which when pulverized and mixed with mordant produces a blood-red pigment whose intensity was unrivaled by anything previously known to Europeans.