Moche

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 Moche civilization flourished on the north coast of Peru from AD 200 to 800. Although the Moche had no writing system, they left a vivid artistic record of their beliefs and activities on intricately painted ceramic vessels, several thousand of which are scattered in museums and private collections throughout the world today. Unfortunately, nearly all were looted by grave robbers so their origin and context are unknown. In recent years, however, through a combination of archaeological excavation and stylistic analysis, it has been possible to identify more than 250 painted vessels from the site of San Jose de Moro. To date, this is the largest sample of Moche art from a single place and time. Thus it provides a unique opportunity to identify a distinct sub-style of Moche ceramics, and to assess its range of artistic and technological variation. Moreover, within the sample it is possible to identify multiple paintings by 18 different artists, thus elucidating the range of subject matter that an artist would paint, as well as the variation in the way he would portray the same scene. By discussing and illustrating more than 200 painted vessels from San Jose de Moro, this volume provides insights about a community of ancient Peruvian potters who shared a distinctive painting style and left a fascinating record of their achievement.

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The architecture of the Moche have created things that have still survived until today. Probably, the most monumental thing they built was the huacas. A huaca is something that is a monument of some kind but since the Moche believed that all the world was sacred or alive, a lot of things could be considered huacas. There is not very much that is known about the architecture created by the Moche though. Everything they built was incredibly sturdy including a first layer of flagstones, platforms, and extremely strong walls. Over the years for most large constructions, they just kept being rebuilt and rebuilt. The Huaca del Sol is the largest adobe structure of pre-Columbian America, that the Moche society had built. A lot of these huacas are known are religious buildings and instead of using the word huaca, Temple can be substituted and it many cases, it is. Most of theses huacas have been found and excavated, though we are not sure if there are many more because archaeologists are very sure that they have gone through every inch possible.

[|Picture of Huaca del Sol]

[|Picture of a Moche Pyramid Base]

[|Picture of a Moche Palace]

To build everything, they used adobe which seemed to have been used in a ton of architecture throughout this time period and a lot of cultures similar to the Moche. I wasn't quite sure what adobe was and I found that "Adobe bricks are a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous material (sticks, straw, dung), which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for the oldest extant buildings on the planet. In hot climates, compared to wooden buildings, adobe buildings offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass." ([|Wikipedia])

Wikipedia also listed a few other famous Moche architecture sites and they are Sipan, Pampa Grande, Dos Cabezas, Pacatnamu, San Jose de Moro, the El Brujo complex, Mocollope, Cerro Mayal, Galindo, Huancaco, and Panamarca. As I kept looking around I found more and more Huacas and I found another mostly in tact huaca called Huaca de la Luna. There are a ton of murals on the inside and outside of it. This is still an ancient Moche capital city known as Cerro Blanco.

[|Picture of the actual Huaca]

[|Mural inside Huaca de la Luna]



[|Video of Construction of Huaca de la Luna]

A lot of these pyramids or palaces have really large rooms and are placed on the side of large valleys. These buildings provide evidence of the Moche civilization that is also shown through found pottery, murals, drawings, and other evidence found. The huacas that were found prove that the coloring of the murals is extremely vibrant and bright. Towns were sometimes built out of these great structures because they were so large and there was just so much room for a lot of people. Many communities were formed and some of the Moche buildings became communities with all different ways of living based on their building. The Moche also had architecture with flat-topped pyramids and platforms connected by ramps, courtyards, and plazas. Outside of these structures and communities, they channeled streams to go flow into many irrigation canals that were used to grow corn, beans, and many other useful crops. With these resources, they produced valuable goods and pottery which is still around and is highly valued. Scenes from daily life, animals, fictional beings, ceremonies, and war were painted on pottery and even sometimes on structures that they created. As well as pottery, the Moche were metalworkers who used gold and silver to create many magnificent works of art through gold and silver and also...wax!

Besides architecture, pottery and art was another form of how we know about the existence of the Moche and how we know so much about them. Moche pottery is some of the most magnificent pottery in the world with exquisite shape and expression of all events that happened in their society. Individuality was very important to them and so their pottery reflected that through different facial expressions and shapes, even though the colors may be dull. They are usually a yellow, cream for normal pieces, red for pieces that the upper class could afford, and white and black only used for the elite of the upper class. A ton of found pottery was found in the graves because they were buried with them, depending on their social class status. Moche pottery was used for sacrifices, ceremonies, explicit acts, utensils, making more art, and just for show.

[|This] website gives a lot of different images of found pottery and what typical Moche pottery would be about.

- Aimee Rosen