Information about Moche

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The Moche civilization (alternately, the Mochica culture, Early Chimu, Pre-Chimu, Proto-Chimu, etc.) flourished in northern Peru from about 100 CE to 800 CE. Today it is understood that they were not politically the same people as the Chimú or the Lambayeque culture. Scholars have proved that the Moche were not politically organized as monolithic empire or state but rather as a group of autonomous polities that shared a common culture expressed mainly in the iconography. 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 and harmony was a huge part of their celebrations.

The Moche lived in many valleys in the north coast of Peru: Lambayeque, Jequetepeque, Chicama, Moche, Viru, Chao, Santa, Nepena. There are several Moche ruins not far from the city of Trujillo, Peru. The Huaca del Sol, a pyramidal structure on the Rio Moche, had been the largest pre-Columbian structure in Peru but was largely destroyed when Spanish Conquistadors mined its graves for gold. Fortunately the nearby Huaca de la Luna seems to have been more important to the Moche and has remained largely intact. It contains many colorful murals with complex iconography and has been under excavation since the early 90's. Other major Moche sites include Sipan, Pampa Grande, Dos Cabezas, Pacatnamu, San Jose de Moro, El Brujo complex, Mocollope, Cerro Mayal, Galindo, Huancaco, and Panamarca.

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. Many of the later of the 143,000,000 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.

The coloration of Moche pottery is not very varied, yellowish cream and Indian red are used almost exclusively on elite pieces, with a white color or 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 most of it has disintegrated; the Moche lived in the north of Peru, which may get 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 erotic pottery is fascinating, not only due to the vast number of sexual activities represented, but also because procreative coitus was only depicted in a limited number of circumstances. While anal intercourse, fellatio, masturbation and cunnilingus were commonly depicted on Moche pottery, vaginal intercourse was only depicted when the male involved wore ceremonial garb, the female had two braids which ended in snake's heads, and the copulation occurred under an elaborate roof of a ceremonial building. In these scenes of procreative sex, additional figures are always depicted watching the couple in the building and holding their hands as though in supplication. The precise meaning of this has never been established.

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 all three features symbolizing land, water and air. When the body is included, it is usually shown with one arm holding a knife and another holding a severed head by the hair. It is thought to figure in the ritual human sacrifice of foreign soldiers or tribal citizens. This human sacrifice may also have 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.^[1] The sacrifices are believed to have been to ensure the coming of the yearly rains.

Demise

There are several theories as to what caused the demise of the Moche political organization. To understand this process of political collapse, we need to consider it as separate historical events in the different valleys where these Moche polities developed. Studies of ice cores drilled from glaciers in the Andes reveal climatic catastophes between 536 to 594 CE, possibly a super El Niño, that resulted in 30 years of unrelenting rain and flooding followed by 30 years of drought, part of the aftermath of the climate changes of 535–536.^[2]

These catastrophes would have disrupted the Moche way of life and shattered their faith in their religion, which had promised stable weather through sacrifices. However, these catastrophic events did not cause the final Moche demise. Recent evidence uncovered by diverse archaeologists has shown that the Moche polities survived beyond 650 CE in the Jequetepeque Valley and the Moche Valleys.

For instance, in the Jequetepeque Valley, later settlements are characterized by fortifications and defensive works. In any case, there is no evidence of a foreign invasion, as many scholars have suggested in the past (i.e. a Huari invasion). Evidence of a period of social unrest followed the climatic changes, as the Moche civilization tore itself apart and fought over the remaining resources.^[3]

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 Chimuan 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.^[4]

In 2006 perhaps the most lavish (certainly the most valuable, pound-for-pound) Moche artifact ever discovered turned up in a Londoner's office — a magnificent gold mask depicting a sea goddess with beautiful spirals radiating from her stone-inlaid face. It is thought that the artifact was looted from a nobleman's tomb in the late 1980s (La Mina); it has now been returned to Peru.^[5]

See also

• El Señor de Sipán
• La Señora de Cao

References

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 Civilization 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
• Sun and Moon Official Project information
• Linked National University of Trujillo, IBM, National Geographic & press reports on El Brujo Archaeological project

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See also
Indigenous peoples of the Americas – Population history of American indigenous peoples – Pre-Columbian art