Moche culture

Moche pottery
(Image © PROMPERU, used with permission)

The Moche civilization (aka the Mochica culture, Early Chimu, Pre-Chimu, Proto-Chimu, etc.) flourished in northern Peru from about 100 CE to 700 CE. Today it is understood that they were not politically the same people as the Chimú, and some believe this was not even an empire but rather a group of communities that shared a common iconography and technology. Pre-Columbian years as expansive as 300 BCE to 1000 CE are sometimes described as the era of the Moche. They are noted for the elaborate painted ceramics and pottery, gold work, and irrigation systems. Moche history is broadly categorized into five periods based on the increasing complexity of pottery decoration. Many Moche ceramic pieces, including their highly detailed erotic pottery, can be found at the Museo de la Nacion and the Museo Larco Herrera, both in Lima.

The Moche primarily were farmers, who diverted rivers into a network of irrigation canals. Their culture was sophisticated, although they had no written language. Yet, their artifacts document their lives with detailed scenes of hunting, fishing, combat, punishment, sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies.

The Moche lived principally in the valleys of three rivers: Chicama, Moche and Viru. Major Moche cities include Sipan and Huancaco. There are several Moche ruins not far from the city of Trujillo, Peru. Huaca del Sol, a pyramidal structure on the Rio Moche, had been the largest pre-Columbian structure in Peru but was largely destroyed when Europeans mined its graves for gold. Fortunately the nearby Huaca de la Luna seems to have been more important to the Moche and remained largely intact. It contains many colorful murals with complex iconography and has been under excavation since 2004.

Pottery

Moche pottery is some of the most varied in the world. They used molds in order to mass produce huge quantities of it. But despite this, they had a large variation in shape and theme. Virtually all vegetables and important activities are documented in their pottery, including war, sex, metal work, and weaving. They would apply figures onto pottery before it dried, which is seldom done today because of the risk of explosion in the kiln if air gets into the joints.

They also seemed to be obsessed with individuality. Every one of the 100,000,000 bricks in the Huaca del Sol had a maker's mark. Important persons would have vases made to resemble their heads. The portrait vases also show the personality of the subject: some are shown laughing, others in deep thought, others angry, etc. Some Moche art is erotic in nature, showing various acts including oral and anal sex. These acts were later banned by the puritanical Inca and the later Christian conquerors. Some people believe the Moche had contact with the Chinese and with Southern Africa because there are vases which show these populations' physical features. But no Chinese or African made artifacts of the period have been found in South America or vice-versa.

The coloration of Moche pottery is not very varied, white and red are used almost exclusively, with a yellowish cream color and black in only a few pieces. Their adobe buildings have mostly been destroyed by looters and the elements over the last 1300 years, but the two huacas that remain show that the coloring of their murals was much more varied, with every color of the rainbow represented. Not much is known about their clothing since it has all disintegrated; the Moche lived in the north of Peru, which gets flooded in El Niño years.

Lima's Museo Larco holds a large collection of Mochica ceramics and artifacts, including a gallery of erotic pottery.

Moche decapitador mural at Huaca de la Luna

Religion

Moche worship featured a figure called the Decapitator, mostly depicted as a spider, but also depicted as a winged creature or a sea monster. When the body is included, it is always shown with one arm holding a knife and another holding a head by the hair. It is thought to figure in the ritual human sacrifice of foreign soldiers or tribal citizens. This human sacrifice also included the consumption of human blood by the Lord of Sipán, who was a Moche spiritual, military and civil leader. This act is believed to have been done to appease the Decapitator. While some scholars, such as Christopher Donnan and Izumi Shimada, argue that the sacrificial victims were the losers of ritual battles among local elites, others, like John Verano and Richard Sutter, suggest that the sacrificial victims were warriors captured in territorial battles between the Moche and other nearby societies. Burials in plazas near Moche pyramids have found groups of people sacrificed together and skeletons of young men deliberately excarnated, perhaps for temple displays.

Demise

There are several theories as to what caused the demise of the Moche civilization. Studies of ice cores drilled from glaciers in the Andes reveal climatic catastophe between 550 to 600 CE, when it is thought that coastal areas were hit by 30 years of floods and rain (Mega El Niño), which were then followed by 30 or more years of drought. Recent evidence uncovered by American Archeologist Tom Dillehay has shown that Moche civilization survived beyond 650 CE, and later settlements are characterized by fortifications and defensive works. Finding no evidence of foreign invasion, this suggests that a period of unrest followed the climatic changes, as the Moche civilization tore itself apart.

Other

The Moche was an Early Intermediate culture that co-existed with the Ica-Nazca culture. They were preceded by the Chavín horizon and succeeded by the Huari and Chimú. They are thought to have had some limited contact with the Ica-Nazca culture because they mined Guano for fertilizer in Ica-Nazca territory. Moche pottery has been found near Ica, but no Ica-Nasca pottery has been found in Moche territory.

Note: Mochica was the language spoken in the area when the Conquistadors arrived, but there is no indication that this was the language spoken by the Moche, so scientists still call them the Moche after the location of the primary archaeological site. There is some evidence they were the same people as the later culture known as Chimú.

Recent discoveries

In 2005, a mummified Moche woman was discovered at the Huaca Cao Viejo, part of the El Brujo archeological site on the outskirts of Trujillo, Peru. It is the best preserved Moche mummy found to date and the tomb that housed her had unprecedented elaborateness. The archaeologists on the site believe that the tomb had been undisturbed since approximately 450 CE. The tomb also contained various military and ornamental artifacts, including war clubs and spear throwers. A garroted young girl, probably a servant, was found in the tomb with her. News of the discovery was announced by Peruvian and U.S. archaeologists in collaboration with National Geographic in May, 2006.

See also

• El Señor de Sipán

External links

• The Lord of Sipan, "King Tutankhamen of the Americas" by Antonio Gutierrez from "Geometry Step by Step from the Land of the Incas"
• Grim rites of the Moche
• Moche Pottery and Temple of the Moon
• Temples Of Doom - human sacrifice, Discover, March, 1999 by Heather Pringle
• BBC:"The Lost Civilsation of Peru" Includes bibliography.
• "A Peruvian Woman Warrior of A.D. 450" New York Times, 17 May 2006, by John Noble Wilford
• Tattooed mummy discovered in Peru pyramid Recent discovery, multimedia presentation
• Information of Moche sites