The Moche Botanical Frog

Abstract

Plants and animals with features which identify them as supernaturals characterize the art of the Precolumbian Moche culture of northern Peru. Among these animals is a frog with feline attributes and a con- sistent association with manioc tubers, stalks, and plants, the Botanical Frog. The Botanical Frog appears to have been patterned on Leptodactylus pentadactylus. It is shown copulating with felines. Fine line painted vessels and ones with low relief decoration show the Botanical Frog performing as part of a ritual involving other ani- mals and cultivated crops, suggesting that the Botanical Frog was associated with agriculture.