Material records of pre-contact cultures include ceramics and textiles from settlements thriving between 1000 B.C. and A.D. 1300 on the Peruvian coast. These pieces came to light through the excavations of Field Museum Curators George Dorsey in the 1890's and Donald Collier in the 1940's and 50's as well as University of California anthropologist Alfred Kroeber in the 1920s.
The Nazca culture thrived on the arid south coast of Peru between A.D. 100 and 800. They are renowned not only for their exquisitely painted pottery but also for their colorful and complex textiles. This ceramic vessel depicting a mythical figure from Nazca culture was collected by anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber during the Captain Marshall Field Second Archaeological Expedition to Peru in 1926.