Moche Art Research Articles

Moche ceremonial badminton revisited

One of the most intriguing activities depicted in Moche art is Ceremonial Badminton, an event where one team used spear throwers to propel feathered objects into the air, while a second team used spear throwers with attached cross pieces to entangle the feathered objects. Enacted by the Moche over a period of five centuries, Ceremonial Badminton appears to have been part of a large festival in which various ritual activities were performed, accompanied by music, dancing, drinking, and feasting. A detailed study of 16 depictions of this ceremony, combined with extensive experimentation and reenactments, provide a much greater understanding of it than was previously possible.

Processions, Architecture, and the Space In-Between: Some Observations about Sculpted Moche Pottery

The focus of procession, in the ancient Andes and elsewhere, is generally on movement. A handful of Moche ceramic vessels, however, suggest that stasis was also an important part of processional activity. This article presents visual evidence from Moche ceramic vessels and Moche architectural remains to suggest that Moche artisans intentionally included references to pauses in ritual activity. These pauses are given tangible form on representations where two-dimensional processional movement intersects with three-dimensional architectural structures. Appearing as recessed or depressed spaces, they are located squarely in the boundary between processional movement and architectural destination.While these features, in both art and architecture, have been largely overlooked, their inclusion in Moche art indicates they had a decided function in Moche ritual activity. Their appearance in art and architecture alerts us to, as well as concretizes, an aspect of procession which is difficult to recognize in the archaeological record: thresholds of transition, or liminal space. These features illuminate for us not only a space but also a moment. By giving concrete form to this feature, Moche artisans communicated the importance of liminal or transitional moments in Moche procession.

A Moche feathered shield from the painted temples of Pañamarca, Peru

We report upon the unique finding of a Moche feathered shield at Pañamarca, Nepeña Valley, Peru. The artifact was excavated in 2010 from an offering context adjacent to two mural paintings first documented in 1950. Although shields are among the most frequent motifs in Moche iconography, very few examples are found archaeologically or in museum collections. We describe the form and materials of the Pañamarca shield and discuss its placement within the huaca's architectural sequence. This shield would have offered little real protection in battle; rather, it served as one of the paramount symbols in Moche art and ritual practice.

Les signes de la masculinité : les représentations phalliques dans l’art Moche

This paper examines the male body in Moche art as a locus for the ideological construction of gender. It proposes that the male body is characterized by vitality, violence, and potency, and that an aspect of this characterization may affect the conventions for representing the phallus. These conventions specifically refer to the erect, sexually potent phallus, even when a specific phallus is not depicted as erect. This mode of representation attempt to create a fixed state out of a temporary quality, by emphasizing the eternal performance of male gender.

Pitfalls on paleopathological interpretations in the visual arts: commentary about the article “Evidences of rheumatic disorders and orthopedics practices in Moche art”

Pitfalls on paleopathological interpretations in the visual arts: commentary about the article “Evidences of rheumatic disorders and orthopedics practices in Moche art”

Evidences of rheumatic disorders and orthopedic practices in Moche art

Evidences of rheumatic disorders and orthopedic practices in Moche art

Moche art and visual culture in ancient Peru

Scattered throughout their coastal homelands, the remains of impressive artworks produced by the Moche of northern Peru survive. These works include ceremonial centers extensively decorated with murals, as well as elaborate and sophisticated ceramic vessels, textiles, and metalwork, that serve to visually represent an ancient American culture that developed a complex, systematized pictorial code used to communicate narratives, sets of ideas, and ideological constructs.In this study, Margaret Jackson analyzes Moche ceremonial architecture and ceramics to propose the workings of a widely understood visual language. Using an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates archaeology and linguistics with art history and studies of visual culture, Jackson looks at the symbolism of Moche art as a form of communication, the social mechanisms that produced it, and how it served to maintain the Moche social fabric.

Moche art and archaeology in ancient Peru

This handsome volume presents the creations of Mesoamerica's most ancient societies in their archaeological contexts. The Olmec--best known for a unique style of monumental stone head and jade were-jaguar--were based along the Gulf of Mexico but have also been linked to other Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Maya and Aztec. This book discusses recent spectacular finds and provides a framework for understanding the history, art, and archaeology of the Olmec.

Variabilidad y personalidad iconográfica de las deidades antropomorfas mochica: una aproximación estadística

The article was originally published without abstract. Short description by editorial team:
 The article debates the statistics of iconographic diversity and figures in anthropomorphic representations of Moche deities. Important hypotheses on Moche art were suggested before by Christopher Donnan, who argued that Moche iconography is based on a very strict cultural code – every element is carefully planned and was meaningful. This was opposed by Krzysztof Makowski. The aim of this research was to test these ideas using statistical analyses of set ceramics (figurative depictions). The results suggest that Moche iconography does not follow a strict code. While a few elements or attributes clearly relate with certain persons or deities, there is a great number of other elements that do not show such relations.

Moche art and archaeology in ancient Peru

Moche art and archaeology in ancient Peru

Moche Politics, Religion, and Warfare

In this essay I briefly review the history of Moche studies, the essential features of this archaeological culture of the North Coast of Peru (ca. 1900–1100 B.P.), and its general economy. I then present current issues, discussions, and debates on Moche regional political organization, religion, warfare, and their interrelations. I suggest that the interpretation of Moche art has been and the interpretation of archaeology has lacked nuance. I question the proposal of warfare as “ritual,” that the temple mound complexes were centers of political power, that the elite buried in them were rulers, that the compounds and streets near them were cities, and whether proposals for a conquest Moche state are plausible. I suggest that these and other interpretations about the Moche are becoming accepted as facts without considering alternative interpretations of the data and that much information is lacking. Rather than having reached a stage when we can synthesize concepts about Moche culture we are only just beginning to understand it.

The Narrative Approach to Moche Iconography

This paper develops ideas first presented in "The Moche Revolt of the Objects" (Quilter 1990). It suggests that while the thematic approach to Moche iconography is useful, application of an approach that assumes that the themes are segments of a narrative will increase our understanding of the myths behind Moche art. After discussing the basis on which narrative may be inferred from art, the narrative approach is applied to demonstrate how known Moche artistic themes may be placed in sequence. Some previous uncertainties regarding iconographic figures are resolved, and part of the Moche mythic corpus is presented.

The Moche Revolt of the Objects

Stories involving the death of the sun and a subsequent revolt of objects against humans are variants of a common and ancient Native American myth, and it is argued that a number of art works from the Moche culture of the Peruvian north coast depict a variant of this myth. The “Revolt of the Objects” theme is part of a narrative sequence representing an important epic of the late Moche culture that is linked to other Moche art, larger symbolic concepts, and sociopolitical events. Now that simple diffusionistic explanations are no longer applicable, the occurrence of similar themes in myths and art throughout the Americas is a subject that should be reexamined.