Moche Civilization

MOCHE CIVILIZATION 100 - 800 AD

GEOGRAPHY

The ancient Moche culture, also known as the early Chimu, thrived for 700 years in present-day northern Peru. The culture centered around the valleys of the Andes Mountains along the coast. This area of Peru is a very hard, dry desert, surrounded by two rivers - the Moche and the Chicama - which are dry for most of the year. During the rainy season, however, these rivers would flood, depositing rich silt that proved excellent for agriculture. As the map illustrates, the Moche civilization was small, and even for its longevity, it did not spread far. At its height, extending from the northern Piura River to the southern Huarmey River, it spanned only about 20,000 square miles. For contrast, the Roman Empire covered 6.5 million square miles, the Tang Dynasty in China amassed 11 million square miles, and the contemporary British Empire controlled a vast 33.7 million square miles at its height.

Photo: National Geographic

RELIGION

The Moche people had a very unique religion with multiple spirits and deities that they worshipped and sacrificed for. Their religion was very organized because of the amount of free time they had, and there is evidence in there pottery that shows how complicated their practices and ceremonies were. Their priests were often wealthy and elaborately adorned, and they were greatly respected and obeyed by the people. Two flat-topped pyramids near the Moche capital of Chan Chan are two very important religious sites. Called the Huaca del Sol and the Huaca de la Luna (pyramid of sun, pyramid of the moon), they were used for religious rites and ceremonies. Their walls are covered with horrific, fantastical, and grotesque creatures thought by archeologists to be representations of their deities. Shown here, the Decapitator spirit called Ayapec, was an especially gruesome spirit often shown dismembering humans. Many archeologists theorize that this is not merely artwork - human sacrifice and dismemberment were real life models for the work left behind. In fact, at the base of a prominent rock, seventy dismembered skeletons were found buried, and it is assumed that these people were sacrificed, most likely for the good will of a spirit such as the Decapitator. But, a central idea of Moche religion is the conflicting forces, and Moche shamans meditated and worshipped to channel the power of the dual forces into benefit for their community. Myths supported, defined, and perpetuated the political and social structure in the civilization, and maintaining harmony was incredibly important to all Moche people, from the shaman kings to commoners. In order to maintain this balance, sacrifice and dismemberment seemed the only ritualistic solution.

ARTS

Moche pottery continues to tell the story of the civilization. Noted for their realism and size, 80,000 to 100,000 Moche vessels can be found in museums and collections around the world. Many of these vessels were intended for funeral rituals, and they are keys to the way the Moche lived, loved, and worshipped. It has been theorized that most, if not all Moche art is religious in nature, but they also demonstrate a lot of realism - the animals, plants, people, and everyday activities included in their pottery also depict "anthropomorphized" demons or gods, meaning they gave their spirits human-like qualities. The Moche people also left behind metalwork like ornament and jewelry made of gold, silver, and copper. The beautiful nariguera (ornament) shown here depicts the infamous Ayapec/Decapitator, and it would've been worn with the small center clasps hooked to the nostrils. These would have been commonly worn by the elite, priests, and warriors. 

Gold nariguera inlaid with chrysocolla and turquoise. Photo: Manuel González Olaechea y Franco

More artifacts are shown below, exhibiting the technique and variety of Moche artwork, all from 1 - 800 C.E., ranging from extremely sophisticated metallurgy to fine weaving to bold sculptures. The Moche also used their skill for pottery to make musical instruments, such as the botella silbadora, a type of ceramic whistle.

Pair of mosaic earplugs with iguana designs. Photo: Museo Larco

Earplugs of a warrior priest. Photo: Museo Larco

         

 Maternity - nursing sculpture.  Photo: Museo Larco  - - - Textile with profile figure. Photo: Museo Larco

Botella silbadora. Photo credit: Museo Larco

SOCIETY

The Moche were an agricultural society. Most people lived in adobe (mudbrick) homes, but those who were poorer used stone set in mud or quincha (cane and mud) to build their dwellings. Their houses may have been arranged to form districts based on class, families, jobs, or wealth, and they were interspersed around public and private ceremonial buildings. There were noticeable divisions in society, with luxurious homes for the governing elite - mostly priests - and more humble houses for artisans and the working class. 

Recently, archeologists found the imposing tomb of a what appeared to be a higher class woman. Unsurprisingly for a woman of the time, she was surrounded by weaving materials and needles, but she also shared her tomb with strikingly unlady-like objects: 2 ceremonial war clubs and 28 spear thrower sticks. According to the article in the New York Times, these were "items never found before in the burial" of a Moche woman. The woman has been noted as elite, and one of "the richest female Moche burials ever found", and possessing an usual combination of objects that were normally exclusive to gender. The combination suggests that the woman was perhaps a female warrior, or perhaps held great power. 

POLITICS

Most likely beginning as a complex chiefdom, the Moche sought political unity through an elaborate ritual system. A prestigious elite class of priests later found power through a centralized structure supported by administrators and warriors. This organization was similar to that of a theocratic state. The elite priest class lost power in the later years of the civilization, and a more secular political structure emerged, setting up the framework for the Chimú culture later on. 

ECONOMICS 

The foundation of the Moche economy was built upon access to food, and the two pillars forming this foundation were farming expertise and the Pacific ocean. The immense farming knowledge the Moche possessed allowed them to grow plentiful food. The bountiful Pacific provided enough fish and birds to support a non-agricultural population, in addition to rivers, marshes, and fresh-water lagoons. 

DEMOGRAPHICS

There is little record of the population of the Moche empire at any given time, mostly because writing did not develop in the central Andes for some time, and the very existence of Moche was not known until the late 19th century. Through excavation, however, an early archaeologist named Rafael Larco Hoyle divided Moche history (and South American societies of the north coast in general) into a comprehensive chronological sequence. He used the ceramic vessels and created the first two phases, 1st century BCE to 1st century CE, in which the culture was forming. The third and fourth phases were 2nd-5th centuries CE, and include the militaristic expansion of the Moche, where they migrated from the valleys in the south to the valleys of the north, stretching across a the civilization's largest territory from Piura to Huarmey. The fifth phase, 6th-7th centuries CE, is the era in which the culture was fading and assimilating influences from other highland and coastal societies. The Moche/Mochicha civilization was named after the language spoken in the north coast, which was a form of Muchik.

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTS

The greatest intellectual development of the Moche empire was certainly their intuitively prosperous use of the natural resources that they were surrounded with. Peru's geographic diversity presented a challenge of how best to utilize it, and the Moche's intelligent use heightened their civilization socially, politically, and economically. 

TECHNOLOGY

First and foremost, the Moche irrigation system was their most impressive technology. Life was made possible in the valleys using canals that would control the amount of water going to crops like maize, squash, and beans. Beyond basic needs, the Moche excelled in ceramics, metallurgy, and weaving. Moche architecture included gabled and shed roofs with pillars, pilasters, or columns for support. They used adobe sun-dried mudbrick commonly to build their dwellings. 

Works Cited