MOCHE, PERU100-800AD

The Moche lived along fertile river valleys on the north coast of Peru from 100-800 AD.

They built pyramids, temples, and palaces of sun-dried mud bricks and decorated them with colorful murals.

Master metalworkers, they created extraordinary jewelry and ornaments of gold, silver, and copper.

The Moche are most widely known, however, for their remarkable painted and modeled ceramics.

From these works we know of their environment, the crops they grew; and the animals of land, sea, and sky that were important in their lives.

Even though the Moche did not have a writing system, we can reconstruct many aspects of the civilization by studying the complex scenes depicted in fine line drawings on clay vessels.

Agriculture They grew a wide variety of crops, including corn, beans, avocados, squash, chili peppers and peanuts.

The Pacific Ocean, as well as the rivers, marshes and lagoons yielded a rich catch of mollusks, fish, shrimp, crabs, and crayfish.

Domesticated llamas, guinea pigs and ducks were additional sources of food, along with snails and lizards which were occasionally gathered.

Peanuts When planted, the peanut grows and flowers above ground like any other plant, but then it buries its fruit underground, where it germinates, returning back into the “world of the living”, growing and flowering and burying its fruit, and so on and on, for generations (or incarnations).

Linguistics and

Philosophy The Andean believed in cyclical thinking, that life and death were in the same category; seasons changed from wet to dry and back again. 

In the Andean concept of reality time and space appear to intersect. There are certain aspects of time/space that are cyclic and others that allow for aberrations and changes as each cycle repeats back upon itself.

looking “forward” toward the past events, while the “future” lies behind them. Future and past blend together

Spatial/metaphoric time sense relates very much to the ever repeating diurnal and annual sun cycles so important in Andean religion and the complex agricultural systems that traditionally have formed the basis of their existence

Society With an abundant and nutritious diet, the Moche sustained a dense, highly stratified population which was able to devote large numbers of workers to the construction and maintenance of irrigation canal systems, as well as the construction of pyramids, palaces and temples.

Hierarchy dominated the social and political structure of the Andean culture.

The social hierarchy influenced the art.

Because the role of a person and his position in society were important, Andean arts also focus on a person’s position in society

CeramicsThe Moche peoples were prolific potters. They produced thousands of ceramic vessels—primarily stirrup-spout bottles—for use in rituals and mortuary events.

The so-called portrait head vessels, such as this, which may depict important individuals in Moche society perhaps at different stages of their lives, have distinctive facial features with varied expressions.

Age differences appear as well, for instance, wrinkles for age were modeled onto the face before firing.

Moche art is highly personal Stirrup spout bottle100-800 C.E

Portrait Head Bottle

This portrait head wears a head cloth over his hair; a band decorated with four serpents, two on each side, is worked around the crown of the head.

The profile serpents have open mouths, rows of bared teeth, and bifurcated tongues. They face each other in the center of the forehead.

The face is painted—along the nose bridge, a triangle from nose to mouth, and a larger rectangle on each cheek.

This pattern is seen on prominent people and even on major gods in Moche art.

Stirrup Portrait Bottle

Archeologist have discovered thousands of portrait head bottles!

Bottles were used for rituals, burials and for the everyday.

Stirrup Spout Bottle with Sleeping Warrior

Nowhere in Moche art are warriors shown attacking a fortified settlement.

Nowhere are warriors shown capturing, killing, or mistreating noncombatants.

There is no iconography showing groups of warriors working in a coordinated fashion against another group—what we would think of as army against army.

Stirrup Spout Bottle Depicting a Woman During

Childbirth The role of women’s particular powers are shown in this rare image of a woman giving birth.

The dangerous female act of issuing forth life may represent the crux of the natural cycle.

The emphasis is on the stoic push by the mother and the importance of the midwive/shaman, as fertility and moments of transition are common responsibilities.

Bottle, Skeletal Couple with Child Skeletal individuals are often depicted in Moche ceramics, probably symbolizing the interplay and complementarity between life and death.

It has been suggested that in Moche religion, a transitory stage between life and death is expressed by the existence of transitional beings such as simian individuals and the animated deceased.

In painted or sculpted vessels, animated skeletons dance, embrace, play music with flutes and rattles, carry funerary offerings, or engage in sexual activities.

This embracing skeletal couple with child illustrates death as a necessary stage for the renewal of life. 3rd–7th

century

Deer Stirrup Bottle

Note the deer is holding onto two baby deer.

Although most animal bottles done by the Moche are symbols of water animals, this deer is representative of a land animal.

This bottle can tell us their understanding and respect for the deer as well as their relationship with nature.

TumiThe Tumi is a sacrificial ceremonial axe distinctly characterized by a semi-circular blade, made of either bronze, copper, gold-alloy, wood, or silver alloy

Tumi were produced for ritual use and for burials of elite members of society

In Andean mythology, the Moche, Chimú and Incas were descendants of the Sun, which had to be worshiped annually with an extravagant celebration.

The festival took place at the end /of the potato and maize harvest in order to thank the Sun for the abundant crops or to ask for better crops during the next season. Sican Culture Ceremonial Tumi

Sacrificer Scene Bottle

This bottle represents a major Moche deity known as Wrinkle Face

He is recognizable by his deep wrinkles, fanged mouth, feline headdress, and snake-headed belt. He also wears a necklace made of circular owl-head beads.

Wrinkle Face is often represented in sacrifice scenes, burial ceremonies, and combats with diverse supernatural creatures.

He stands on a platform in front of a human figure with severed head lying on its back.

The deity holds a tumi ceremonial knife in his left hand, as if he had just performed the sacrifice. In the right hand, he holds an open-mouthed animal head. A series of snake heads is painted around the platform.

Sacrifice Ceremony

Bottle A Moche ceremonial bottle depicting the ritual of sacrifice of captive warriors, and the presentation of a blood offering to the gods.

The weapons and clothes of the captives are bundled together and carried off by the winner, who parades the loser with a rope tied around his neck and bleeding from the nose.

The captives are herded into the ceremonial precinct where the Sacrifice Ceremony is enacted

There, the captives, with their hands tied behind their backs and their weapon bundles to one side, have their throats slit.

Goblets catch the blood which is consumed by priests and priestesses.Finally, the bodies of the losing warriors are dismembered.

Royal tombs of Sipán

The Huaca Rajada monument consists of two small adobe pyramids plus a low platform.

This site contains the remains of Lord Sipán.

Fourteen tombs have been discovered.

During the excavations a spectacular treasure of gold and silver ornamental and ceremonial artifacts was recovered, dating to AD 50–300.

These objects demonstrate the outstanding craftsmanship of the Moche metalsmiths, and their use of elaborate metalworking techniques.

El Señor de Sipán, original artifacts in the Royal Tombs of Sipán museum, Lambayeque, Peru

Pair of Winged

Messengers Large circular ear ornaments were popular personal adornments of prominent ancient Peruvian lords and a symbol of their status and wealth.

The weight of the frontal, which could reach widths of more than four inches, was counterbalanced by a long tubular shaft that went through the distended hole in the earlobe.

On this pair, bird-headed (or masked) winged runners, worked in turquoise, sodalite, and spondylus shell, hold bags in their outstretched hands.

Their eyes and beaks are sheathed in gold.

They may be depictions of mythological messengers.

Peanut shell necklace worn by the Lord of

SipánSignificance of the peanut in Andean worldview

Shell is like a little coffin.

Peanuts, because of their high protein and caloric value, as well as their lightweight, durable “packaging”, make great travel food, particularly for the long journey to the afterlife.

Note the use of gold and silver- representative of the concept of duality.

Ai ApaecAi Apaec was worshiped as the creator god, protector of the Moche: a provider of water, food and military triumphs

It is said that during human sacrifices, prisoners were decapitated and their heads given to Ai Apaec

Aiapaec- “doer” in Mochica language

The image of Ai-Apaec worked in gold.

His eyes are those of an owl symbolizing wisdom

His teeth are those of a Puma symbolizing the mountains and the jungle

His corona is formed from the tentacles of an octopus with manta rays on the end of the tentacles symbolizing the sea