Eisen collected four blanket-sized, geometrically designed pieces of wool cloth which are now in the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley. He also collected 3 bed-coverings, sheets (sábanas) of treadle-loomed cloth which contained tie-dyed and solid colored yarns in weft bands. These could have been coarse cotton sheets.
It is reasonable to imagine indigenous serapes were placed over bedding at night, then to be worn during the day. In this way, utilitarian wool chamarras with color and designs might have come into use much earlier than the late 1800’s, later on to be provided for sale to the new urban colonial houses specifically as bedding accessories.
The nearest corresponding culture producing blankets was in Mexico. Observations there would widen an understanding of what may have been happening to wool fabric in Guatemala. In the meantime, indigenous men in Mexico and in Guatemala were wearing wool pants, skirts or ‘faldas’, outer protective work garments of black wool. These became prevalent throughout Mexico and in the Central American isthmus, an indication that wool was adapted as protective and functional material before it became decorative for a consuming socio-economic class.
