Moche

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Moche

Moche (Mochica) culture, named by archaeologists for the valley in which its principal site is located, emerged by about 200–100 bce. Originally centered in the Moche-Chicama valley system, the Moche people expanded over time to control about 330 miles of the north coast of Peru, including the valleys from Lambayeque in the north to Nepeña in the south. Inland they controlled the valleys up to the point where the floodplain was no longer cultivable.

The Moche appear to have been an aggressive, warlike people who spread by conquest over the north coast. The nature of their political organization has been the subject of much controversy. Some have argued that the Moche created one of the first state-level governments in the Andes. Because of the absence of true cities and urban centers, others believe that the Moche were more likely a highly organized, predatory chiefdom without the administrative hierarchy of control characteristic of a centralized government. The Moche appear to have developed true urban centers or cities very late in their history and were probably on the threshold of becoming a true state when their society collapsed between ce 600 and 750.

Moche engineers designed and built fortifications, and public works projects such as roads and canals, in addition to domestic and ritual architecture. The agricultural economy of the Moche led them to construct elaborate irrigation systems, with canals bringing water from the upper valleys to increase the amount of arable land. The construction and maintenance of these systems required a sophisticated knowledge of hydrological engineering and a high level of organization and coordination within Moche society.

Much of what is known of the Moche comes directly from their art. They developed a lifelike style that was so accurate that plants and animals are often easily identified. Realistic portraits of individuals show what the people looked like and provide a great amount of detail about costume. Almost every imaginable aspect of culture was depicted in Moche art, ranging from the familiar and commonplace, including tools, weapons, clothing, houses, plants, and animals, to representations of supernatural beings and scenes from mythology.

Moche society was organized into a hierarchy. Nobles and other important men are shown richly costumed, presiding over ceremonies and rituals. The rulers probably also functioned as the high priests in a theocratic government. Recent archaeological discoveries at Sipán, in the Lambayeque valley, indicate that the highest-ranking members of Moche society controlled vast quantities of gold, silver, and other precious commodities.

Ordinary people were frequently shown engaged in mundane activities such as eating and drinking, bathing, sleeping, fishing, and hunting. Specialized roles in society such as healers and shamans, and even witches, are also shown. Lifelike figurines modeled in clay show Moche people engaged in nearly all common human activities. Portraits of the sick are accurate enough that some diseases can be identified by modern doctors.

The Moche visual style that conveys this information appeared in a wide variety of media. Best known are Moche ceramics, but Moche artists also wove textiles, painted murals, and worked in stone, wood, shell, and metal. Saline soil and increased moisture on the north coast has destroyed all but a few Moche textiles, but the other art forms have survived in abundance.

At the beginning of the Middle Horizon (540–900), the Moche polity appears to have suffered a series of severe crises that led to its collapse. A climatic fluctuation is often cited as a possible cause of these crises. Internal social stress resulting from reduced economic productivity is sometimes mentioned as a factor as well. Another frequently cited cause is the expansion of the Huari Empire from the south. It seems likely that all of these factors played some role in the disappearance of the Moche culture.

In recent years archaeological teams under the guidance of Santiago Uceda of the University of Trujillo, Steve Bourget of the University of Texas at Austin, and John Verano of Tulane University, have discovered evidence suggesting that the Moche practiced ritual warfare, human sacrifice, and excarnation. The 2005 discovery by this same team of a 1,500-year-old tattooed female mummy in the El Brujo ceremonial site promises to reveal a great deal more about Moche culture in the near future. The woman was buried with the some of the most elaborate war clubs and spears found to date.

See alsoArchaeology; Sicán.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The principal sources on the Moche include Christopher B. Donnan, Moche Art of Peru, rev. ed. (1978), and "Iconography of the Moche: Unraveling the Mystery of the Warrior-Priest," in National Geographic 174, no. 4 (1988): 550-555; Elizabeth Benson, The Mochica, a Culture of Peru (1972); Rafael Larco Hoyle, Los Mochicas, 2 vols. (1938–1939); Gordon R. Willey, Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Virú Valley, Peru (1953); Walter Alva, "Discovering the New World's Richest Unlooted Tomb," in National Geographic 174, no. 4 (1988): 510-550. See also Luis G. Lumberas, The Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Peru (1972); and Walter Alva and Christopher B. Donnan, Royal Tombs of Sipán (1993)