Moche Culture Research Articles

Textiles, dates and identity in the late occupation of the Huacas de Moche, Peru

Archaeological cultures present allegories of ethnic identities across the centuries or millennia but such conceptualisations are necessarily incomplete and lack the resolution to explore transitions between cultures. Here, exploration of the archaeological contexts, production methods, stylistic variation and radiocarbon dating of 20 preserved textile fragments facilitates an examination of cultural change at Huaca del Sol (Huacas de Moche, northern Peru). While occupants of the site experienced many outside cultural influences, including those from the highland Wari Empire, continuity in textile traditions suggests that some sense of Moche identity was maintained through the tenth century and after the perceived end of the Moche culture.

Resonaciones: sounds vibrating sympathetically into time and space

This article unfolds the research and exhibition project Resonaciones. An Embrace to Awake, that originates from an encounter with ancient whistling vessels from the Moche culture from the collection of the Ethnological Museum Stuttgart (Linden Museum). Different forms of knowledge and practices from sound art, new materialism, quantum physics and indigenous philosophies connect within the experiential and experimental setting of the exhibition space. Thus, the potential of curatorial and artistic practice is revealed in forging connections and relations and opening up reflections on philosophical, natural and historical concepts. By reactivating the ancestral technology of whistling vessels, Resonaciones explores the vibrational essence of matter and energy, manifested in sound as a medium of connection and agency. Perceiving reality through vibrations, the ontological boundaries between subject and object, between past, present and future, and spatial conceptualizations break down and reconfigure opening up other modes of remembering and relating to one another.

The Lord of Ucupe mask from Moche culture (Peru). A multianalytical study of the materials from the metals to the adhesive

The aim of this paper is to characterize materials belonging to one of the masks coming from the Lord of Ucupe's tomb in the region of Lambayeque in Peru. The mask belongs to the Moche culture which lived in the north of Peru since 100 CE. Along with the study of the extraordinary metal alloy technique using X-ray fluorescence (ED XRF) integrated with the Monte Carlo simulation, this paper investigates the blackish material used as an adhesive for its inlaid eyes. This material was analysed through the ATR FT-IR and characterized through Py-GC/MS and GC/MS for the organic components and SEM-EDS for the inorganic components. The chemical characterization of the adhesive material coming from this type of artefact, based on our knowledge of current literature, is the first on this material and allows us to take a further step into the understanding of the constituents used for this purpose.

Enemy – Stranger – Neighbor: The Image of the Other in Moche Culture by Janusz Z.WołoszynOxford: Archaeopress, 2021. 200 pp.

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Figurative aspects suggestive of infectious diseases in the ceramic pots of the pre-Columbian Moche culture. Analysis of the ceramics collection in the Larco Museum of Lima, Peru.

The historical-medical and anthropological studies, regarding Mesoamerica and South America, have been mainly focused on the great empires (Inca, Atzec, Maya), while other civilizations have been less investigated and only recently are gaining interest. In general, the paleopathological research provides interesting data to know the type of nutrition and the general environmental conditions as well as to point out some ritual mutilation practices, which were relatively frequent in the pre-Columbian cultures. A lot of civilizations flourished in the South America before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores in the new world. In the last years it is progressively increasing the interest for the study of the Moche culture as well as for a deeper knowledge of pathocenosis of infectious diseases in the Moche society. Human infectious diseases are known to have a frequent animal origin, in particular from domesticated species, although the species domesticated in the pre-Columbian era were a small number. The purpose of our paper has been to examine the archeological findings suggestive of infectious diseases in artistic ceramic pots, dating back to the Moche period. We examined the iconography of ceramic pots belonging to the collection of the Larco Museum in Lima and reproducing body signs suggestive of infectious diseases. We identified 8 handworks with very interesting features by a medical point of view. In these handworks there are signs and lesions possibly associated with infectious diseases: risus sardonicus, orbital edema, facial nerve palsy, dorsal kyphosis, face and skin lesions. These features are compatible with some infectious diseases, including: syphilis, Bartonella bacilliformis, leishmaniasis, Pott's disease and Chagas disease. A wide discussion about these handworks is provided.

A New Species of Histiotus Gervais, 1856 (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae), from the Pacific Coast of Northern Peru

The Pacific coastal desert of Peru harbors a unique bat fauna, including narrowly endemic taxa adapted to arid environments. This region was also the setting where several pre-Incan civilizations flourished. The Moche culture (100–850 CE) was one of those, with a rich and diverse material culture that included strikingly realistic ceramic representations of the regional flora and fauna. In particular, one Mochica pottery vessel is in the form of a bat that, based on external characteristics (large pinnae and tragus, pinnae connected by high band of membrane across the forehead, and lack of noseleaf), clearly represents an individual of the vespertilionid genus Histiotus. The morphological characteristics observed in this vessel, in addition to the area of influence of the Moche culture, suggests that this vessel depicts a species previously unknown to science that we describe here as new on the basis of two specimens obtained in 2012 in the Peruvian department of Piura. Our new species, Histiotus mochica, can be distinguished from other congeners by having unicolored dorsal fur, medial lobes of pinnae greater than 9.5 mm wide, and a well-developed (>4.3 mm high) transverse band of skin connecting the pinnae. Cytochrome b sequence data indicate that the new species is sister to H. humboldti from the Andes of Colombia and northern Ecuador. The new species is a medium-sized Histiotus that clusters with H. laephotis, H. velatus, and with small specimens of H. montanus in our multivariate analyses. With the description of H. mochica, the diversity of the genus increases to 11 species. We provide a key based on external characters of all known species of Histiotus.

Climate and Social Changes: Reviewing the Equation with Data from the Huacas de Moche Archaeological Complex, Peru

Investigations at the site of Huacas de Moche—also referred to as Huacas del Sol and de la Luna—on the north coast of Peru show a continuous occupational sequence from around AD 100 to 1500. The longest occupation corresponds to the Moche culture from around AD 100 to 850. Based on available archaeological evidence, this article examines the impact of an El Niño-like event in AD 600 on the history of Huacas de Moche. Widely held hypotheses assumed that this kind of climatic event caused the abandonment of the site; however, such explanations do not fit the current data. After almost three decades of research, archaeological evidence indicates that after the El Niño-like phenomenon of AD 600, the Old Temple of Huaca de la Luna was closed down, and the New Temple was built toward the east of the previous one, on the same slope of Cerro Blanco. Furthermore, on the opposite side of the site, the building called Huaca del Sol experienced its last and greatest architectural expansion, becoming a large-scale palace. These new lines of evidence lead us to reassess the effect that the El Niño-like phenomenon of AD 600 had on the development of the Moche culture at the site.

X-ray computed microtomography for the structural analysis of jewelry from the Museum “Royal Tombs of Sipán”

Precious ornaments from the Museum Royal Tombs of Sipán were analyzed by X-ray computed microtomography (microCT). The ornaments analyzed were golden earrings produced by the Moche culture that flourished along the north coast of present-day Peru between approximately 100 and 600 AD. Sipán, also known as Huava Rajada, is a mochica archaeological complex in the north of Peru. In particular, the spectacular jewelry, mainly composed of gold, silver, and copper alloys, gilded copper, and tumbaga, from the Museum “Royal Tombs of Sipán,” in Lambayeque, north of Peru, are some of the most sophisticated metalworking ever produced of pre-Columbian America. A portable microCT system consisting of a high-resolution flat panel detector and a mini X-ray tube were used for the structural analysis of these ornaments. The microCT images show parts of the internal structure, highlighting the manufacturing technique and gold sheets joining techniques of the Moche artisans. Furthermore, the advantage of using the portable microCT system for nondestructive testing is clear when the sample cannot be taken to the laboratory.

Microchemical Investigation of Long-Term Buried Gilded and Silvered Artifacts From Ancient Peru

A large number of metal artefacts with exceptional artistic value of the Moche culture have been found in the tombs of the Lords of Sipan (Lambayeque, Peru) and of the Lady of Cao (El Brujo, Peru) characterised by different burial conditions. Some of the objects, dated around 300-400 AD, are constituted by substrates of Cu- or Ag-based alloys coated by uniformly distributed thin films of precious metal (1 - 4 microns) that create also polymetallic bicoloured surfaces with “gold” and “silver” areas. In order to investigate the corrosion product structure and composition as well as to identify the techniques used to give the gold or silver appearance, an integrated analytical approach has been adopted. The selected complementary methodologies were scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and optical microscopy (OM). The findings reveal that the substrates are mainly composed by Cu-Ag-Au alloys that at the site of Sipan have been almost completely corroded during the burial. Furthermore, the results show that the main aggressive agent is Cl- coming from the soil and that the degradation phenomena were likely enhanced by the galvanic coupling between the precious metal layer and the less noble substrate. The degradation products have formed mainly layered structures containing chloroargyrite (AgCl), cuprite (Cu2O), nantokite (CuCl), and atacamite (CuCl23Cu(OH)2) polymorphs. These latter species warn that dangerous copper cyclic corrosion is occurring, a harmful phenomenon, commonly defined as “bronze disease”, which must be be firmly mitigated. Finally, the findings reveal that the Moche metal workers used the depletion gilding to selectively modify the surface chemical composition of the artefacts to produce the Ag or Au thin films. According to this subtractive method, the surface of the Cu-Au-Ag alloys was enriched with a layer of precious metal by means of cycles of thermal treatments and removal of Cu or both Cu and Ag from the outermost region by using pickling solutions.

Lambayeque Silver Beakers: Further Considerations

Two silver beakers now in the collection of the Denver Art Museum bear some of the most complex iconography known from the ancient Andes. The vessels are stylistically associated with Lambayeque, a culture that at its greatest extent thrived in the coastal valleys between Chicama and Piura from the 8th–14th centuries. Based on recent technical and iconographic studies of the vessels, this paper sheds light on metalworking, ceremonial behavior, cosmology, and funerary practices in the centuries between the fall of the earlier Moche culture and the rise of the Chimú state.

Book Review: The Archaeology of Mural Painting at Pañamarca, Peru by Lisa Trever

Lisa Trever. The Archaeology of Mural Painting at Panamarca, Peru . Washington D.C., Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2017. ISBN 9780884024248. xvi + 350 pages, 14 color illustrations, 255 halftones, 67 line illustrations, 1 map. $69.95 (paperback). The north coast of Peru, with a tradition of constructing earthen buildings, was a hub of mural painting. Murals decorated pre-Columbian adobe architecture, including the interior and exterior of monumental architecture, religious centers, plazas, and tombs. Mural painting in the ancient Americas is a practice that extends back thousands of years and, in the absence of a textual record in the pre-Columbian Andes, offers insight to understanding indigenous cosmology and practices. These murals and buildings are rarely encountered intact today, as natural and human forces such as rain, wind, and looting have been detrimental to their preservation. Panamarca, located in the Nepena Valley on the north coast of Peru, is not likely to be a familiar archaeological site to scholars outside of pre-Columbian studies. Vivid, brightly colored murals from the Moche culture, which flourished on the north coast of Peru between 200 and 800 C.E., were discovered and published in the 1950s, bringing the site prominent national and international attention.1 These murals depicted figural imagery of processing priests and warriors, ceremonies, and supernatural beings engaged in battle. At the time, murals such as these were unknown elsewhere. Their figural representations of mythology and ritual have shaped the scholarship of the Moche world and iconography. Mural E, the most well-known of Panamarca’s wall paintings, has been used as an important example of a narrative of human sacrifice and ritual toasting. It features a priestess offering a sacrificial goblet flanked by priests, captured warriors, and human sacrifice. This scene, dubbed the “Presentation Theme” and later “Sacrifice Ceremony,” is believed to be a principal component of Moche religious and political ideology.2 Numerous projects throughout the 20th century …

The evolution of communication media in Moche culture

Starting from the improbability of the evolution of truth as a symbolic generalization, out of which a communication medium developed that built the conditions of possibility of a functional system for science, I intend to underline the contingency of such an evolutionary pathway by studying the Moche culture. The Moche represent a fit case study because of their elaborated and narrative-loaded pottery, which played the role of diffusion medium along the Peruvian North Coast. The study of Andean iconographic media and its potential for information production might bring to the foreground the Graphocentrism underlying in Luhmann`s theory of sociocultural evolution, thereby correcting his theoretical model. In addition, a complex ancient culture would serve to illustrate the preconditions that sociocultural evolution had to fulfill in order to set forth a science functional system. My hypothesis is that sociocultural evolution is guided by the dynamic interactions between success and diffusion media, which by conditioning each other sometimes favor differentiation and gain complexity, and some others impede those possibilities leading to evolutionary blind alleys.

Northern and Southern Moche: The Stylistic Distinctions of Face-Neck Vessels Across Regions

This essay is an investigation of stylistic differences in the ceramic production of “face-neck” vessels from the Middle Moche Period (400-600 CE) of the Northern and Southern Moche regions. These face-neck vessels are also referred to as effigy vessels or cántaros cara gollete in Andean ceramic classifications. Face-neck vessels take the shape of human bodies where the torso and limbs have been condensed into a large globular mass; on the neck (the spout of the vessel) appears a human face in relief. In this paper, I focus on fineware face-necks rather than utilitarian wares since the majority of the vessels in this discussion originate from monumental funerary complexes for the elite. Face-neck vessels were commonly used to holds liquids like corn beer, which was consumed in ceremonial practices. By comparing vessels produced contemporaneously by Northern and Southern Moche polities, I have developed a set of distinctions in form, surface decoration, and finishing techniques that appear to distinguish each group. Using these distinctions, I argue that two face-neck vessels from the Harn Museum of Art, which have an unknown provenience, originate from the Southern Moche region between stages III and IV in the Moche ceramic sequence. In the process, I discuss burial practices, the concept of dualism in Moche culture, and the significance of mold technology (with implications for Moche funerary practice). While my research relies heavily on external observation of effigy vessels, I integrate my knowledge and experience as a ceramicist to provide insight on production processes.

ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS OF PIGMENTS IN THE CERAMIC HUACO &amp;#8220;THROAT-CUTTER WARRIOR WITH TROPHY&amp;#8221; USING X-RAY FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY

The X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy technique was used, with a portable equipment, to analyze traces of elements, in a ceramic piece, commonly called “huaco”, identified as the “Throat-Cutter Warrior with Trophy”, and related to the Moche Culture (between 100 and 800 years a.D.) that developed on Peru´s north coast. The analysis has been made in the coatings of red, brown, orange and white color, in the matrix-paste and in the NIST2711a standard. In the ceramic piece, the presence of Iron was confirmed, in greater quantity, in the overlapped layers of red and brown color, while, in the white pigment, elements of Zinc and Barium were detected, considering that the latter never had been reported in Moche ceramic. In the areas corresponding to the eyes, of metallic aspect, 91% copper has been detected. It is argued that the similitude in iconography and materials would indicate that we are dealing with an ancient piece.

Microstructures of Building Materials from Huaca De La Luna, Peru

ABSTRACT The microstructures of building materials from the archaeological complex of Huaca de la Luna on the northern coast of Peru is assessed for the first time by a multiscale approach. The multiscale microstructural characterization used laboratory techniques including optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray microtomography, and both gas and powder pycnometry. Optical microscopy revealed the presence of organic matter and shell fragments and X-ray microtomography showed differences in the sizes and connectivity of pores. The BET (N2 gas adsorption) specific surface areas showed greater presence of clayey matrix in the mortars. No significant differences among mortars and brick fragments mineralogy were detected by X-ray diffraction, so the larger amount of fine binding matrix in the mortars suggests that they were produced blending raw material with different grain sizes. The aim of this study is to provide data that can be used for a better understanding of the Moche culture, its construction techniques, and to support conservation strategies of the archaeological heritage.

BIOLOGICAL DISTANCE PATTERNS AMONG THE NORTHERN MOCHE LORDS: DENTAL PHENOTYPES AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN ANCIENT PERU

Between AD 100 and 800, the Moche culture emerged on the north coast of Peru. Diverse debates surround the nature of Moche territorial and political centralization, sociopolitical identities, and the internal social diversity of Moche society. Here we address some of these issues in a biodistance study based on phenotypic variation of inherited dental traits within and between 36 individuals in the royal tombs of Sipán (Lambayeque valley), Úcupe (Zaña valley), and Dos Cabezas (Jequetepeque valley). Metric and nonmetric dental trait data were analyzed using hierarchical cluster and R-matrix analyses. The results independently indicate that the highest-level Sipán and Dos Cabezas lords likely represented different endogamous kin groups, while limited gene flow occurred between groups of Moche lower nobility between the Lambayeque and Jequetepeque regions. Although biology and material cultural link the Lord of Úcupe to Dos Cabezas, many objects in his tomb demonstrate his participation the world of the Sipán elites. These Moche lords were, on some levels, bioculturally interconnected. Nonetheless, the data broadly lend support to a “many Moches” model of sociopolitical structure, further casting doubt on earlier one-dimensional visions of a centralized hegemonic Moche polity.

Structural and geotechnical engineering assessment of Huaca de la Luna – A massive earthen Moche culture pyramid in Northern Peru

Abstract The present paper presents results of a comprehensive engineering analysis for understanding the current structural damage condition of a sector of one of the most representative archaeological complexes in Peru: the main Moche culture pyramid of Huaca de la Luna. It is estimated that this pyramid was built in stages with adobe masonry between 100 and 600 A.D. Severe structural damage was identified near the NW corner during the archeological excavation in the form of damaged walls, fissures, cracks, compressed adobe blocks, and incomplete geometry of perimeter walls. An interdisciplinary team carried out an engineering diagnosis involving: detailed surveying and mapping of the geometry of the complex, multi-scale characterization of the material components, geotechnical assessment of foundation conditions, and advanced numerical modeling to help evaluate the possible reasons for the observed structural damage. The results indicate that the origin for the observed damage is uneven foundation settlements related to a variable foundation layer thickness that is associated to the sloping bedrock at the site of this complex. The complex soil-structure interaction issues associated to the foundation conditions and high foundation pressures in the NW corner of the complex, coupled with the high internal stresses in the lower part of this structure that reach the strength capacity of this fragile material, appear to be the main reasons for the observed damage. This interdisciplinary study provided an effective approach to find a valid and scientific-based explanation for the observed archaeological evidence and open up new engineering and archaeological discussions for finding the most appropriate strategies for future conservation and structural consolidation works at this invaluable Moche culture heritage site.

Structural analysis of jewelry from the Moche tomb of the `lady of Cao' by X-ray digital radiography

Nose ornaments from the tomb of the `Lady of Cao', a mummified woman representative of the Moche culture and dated to the third-or-fourth century AD, were analyzed by X-ray digital radiography. These spectacular gold and silver jewels are some of the most sophisticated metalworking ever produced in ancient America. The Mochecivilization flourished along the north coast of present-day Peru, between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, approximately between 100 and 600 AD. The Moche were very sophisticated artisans and metal smiths, being considered the finest producers of jewels and artifacts of the region. A portable X-ray digital radiography (XDR) system consisting of a flat panel detector with high resolution image and a mini X-ray tube was used for the structural analysis of the Moche jewels aiming at inferring different joining methods of the silver-gold sheets. The radiographic analysis showed some differences in the joint of the silver-and-gold sheets. Presence of filler material and adhesive for joining the silver-and-gold sheets was visible as well as silver-gold junctions without filler material (or with a material invisible in radiography). Furthermore, the technique demonstrated the advantage of using a portable XDR micro system when the sample cannot be brought to the laboratory.

Impacto medioambiental, turístico y social del descubrimiento del Señor de Sipán en Lambayeque

In 1987, Walter Alva and Alva, a Peruvian archeologist and specialist in the pre-Inca cultures of the Northern Andes, managed to paralyze a massive plunder that was being carried out by the Huaqueros in the Huaca Rajada, a pyramidal ensemble attributed to the Moche culture. This complex was later dated and is attributed its development around 250 AD. At present, the objects extracted and recovered are in the museum Tumbas Reales of the city of Lambayeque, some buildings that were projected according to the Moche culture.The finding and excavations generated a notable impact. Archeology included a new landmark, because, for the first time, it was possible to find intact a burial of a notable man of the middle of the third century. Yes, for a few hours, because the Huaqueros were about 50 centimeters from the grave. In a short time, the so-called Lord of Sipán became a cultural, tourist and social phenomenon that is in force.

Ice-core evidence of earliest extensive copper metallurgy in the Andes 2700 years ago

The importance of metallurgy for social and economic development is indisputable. Although copper (Cu) was essential for the wealth of pre- and post-colonial societies in the Andes, the onset of extensive Cu metallurgy in South America is still debated. Comprehensive archaeological findings point to first sophisticated Cu metallurgy during the Moche culture ~200–800 AD, whereas peat-bog records from southern South America suggest earliest pollution potentially from Cu smelting as far back as ~2000 BC. Here we present a 6500-years Cu emission history for the Andean Altiplano, based on ice-core records from Illimani glacier in Bolivia, providing the first complete history of large-scale Cu smelting activities in South America. We find earliest anthropogenic Cu pollution during the Early Horizon period ~700–50 BC, and attribute the onset of intensified Cu smelting in South America to the activities of the central Andean Chiripa and Chavin cultures ~2700 years ago. This study provides for the first time substantial evidence for extensive Cu metallurgy already during these early cultures.