One hundred years of archeological excavations have revealed to the world the rich, sophisticated and multiform expression of the great Andean cultures.Within this bountiful body of artifacts, textiles play a cardinal role in mirroring the psyche of their mysterious creators whilst providing a coherent, cohesive and flexible medium to express the "weltanschauung" of those times.Textiles are amongst humanity's first artistic endeavors, playing a seminal role in the evolution of consciousness by reflecting archetypes of both a religious and social nature. Textiles become an exalted vehicle where the use of symbols, the arcanes of faith, cosmology and mythology are exposed. Unlike ceramics, which passed through all levels of secular society, textiles always plied a deeply spiritual component together with a status function. Today they continue to provoke the unconscious. The afficionado, the scientist and the neophyte viewer of these mysterious weavings are collectively inspired to lift the veil shrouding these ancient works.Textiles in the Andes were primarily destined as ceremonial offerings to the gods, ancestors and deceased as well as highly valued gifts for the living, playing a fundamental role in the sealing of alliances, as expressions of appreciation and advancement between lords and vassals and tribute between the defeated and the victorious. They highlighted important stages in the Andean life cycle, emerging as a form of "currency" which strengthened, in the form of artful and precious gifts, the bonds between kinfolks, and assuaged former foes in the form of goodwill. Antique traditions, unlike our own, are not governed by a trade of capital and a commerce of goods. On the contrary they emphasised the gift in all forms of social intercourse in order to ritualise, amongst human society, the fundamental relationship ordering the Cosmos, that is the gift of life and sustenance bestowed by the Gods to the living. The ordering of society reflected this principle at every level and acted as the essential bond that held fast all of the social strata.