speakers / moderators

Walter Alva, Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán
El Museo Tumbas Reales De Sipán: Una experiencia museografica sobre los contextos funerarios de la elite Moche
Las investigaciones arqueologicas en la plataforma funeraria de Sipán, permitieron el registro y recuperación cientifica de los más importante contextos funerarios de la élite Moche. El conocimiento de esta cultura se enriqueció sustancialmente con datos interpretativos sobre la estructura social y politica, tecnología, arte y pensamiento religioso. Los ornamentos, atuendos y otros materiales recuperados en los ajuares funerarios constituyen emblemas de poder, pero también uno de los tesoros culturales más importantes del antiguo Perú. De otro lado la expectativa internacional por éstos Descubrimientos, generaron la necesidad de contar con un Museo y que preserver estos tesoros, y exponga dignamente su importancia ante el pais originario y el mundo. Frente a esta situación se desarrolló una propuesta museografica que reafirme todas estas características y permita presentar didacticamente al mundo los contextos de las tumbas de la realeza mochica. En esta propuesta se manejo un concepto temático interactivo que ha dado por resultado la construcción e inauguración de uno de los museo más importante de Sub america y el desarrollo de una presentación museografica, innovadoramente atractiva y sustentada en la investigación arqueológica. La Ponencia expondrá los conceptos y características del Proyecto museográfico hasta su finalización.

Elisabeth P. Benson, Institute of Andean Studies
Iconography Meets Archaeology
For many years, attempts to understand the Moche world were often largely dependent upon the rich iconography of the ceramic bottles. After the last fifteen or so years of fairly constant archaeological investigation, the archaeology is now being used to explain the iconography. In some instances, archaeology has provided for the first time actual examples of objects known only in ceramic depictions. In other instances, architectural excavation has revealed structures and rooms of types that are seen on the ceramics in abbreviated form. These comparisons instruct us in the ways that the Moche put their realities into compact visual expression, and they give evidence of what in the iconography actually existed and what was a gloss to express the numinous quality of the art. Archaeology has also introduced new forms and new concepts in metallurgy and mural art, and it is pointing out differences in the northern and southern regions in Moche approaches to art and iconography. Yet, while archaeology expands and enriches our knowledge of iconography, it also raises many new questions.

Steve Bourget, University of Texas, Austin
The Third Man: A Search for Identity in Moche Archaeology and Visual Culture 
Since the 1950s and especially over the past twenty years, a series of propositions have been made concerning the identity of a number of high-ranking burials and the possibility that the individuals buried in these elaborate tombs could have been the real life counterparts of some of the people depicted in the iconography. Recognizing a link between these two sets of information is of critical importance if we are to understand better both the representations, and the social and religious life of these people. In the first part if this paper, I will review, albeit briefly, these identifications and the basis for them. In the second section, I will attempt to identify the “iconographical persona” of the individual buried in Tomb 3 at Sipán—a man in his late forties.

                                
Luis Jaime Castillo, PUCP, Lima
Late Mochica Ceramics and in the Jequetepeque Valley
Moche scholars now generally accept that the Mochica were not a single, unified state but a cluster of polities with distinct degrees of development and independence. Throughout their more than 600 year of existence, these polities increased and decrease in complexity, expended, collapsed, were conquered, received and were the source of cultural and artistic influences, achieved political centralization and fragmented into factionalized entities. Given that regional developments can be extremely different, it becomes necessary to understand cultural processes on regional basis, and thus, to develop ceramic sequences that are sensible to regional differences. The Jequetepeque Valley, located between the two powerful nuclei of Moche-Chicama and Lambayeque was one of the most distinct Mochica regions. Ceramic sequences in Jequetepeque are not like anything happening in the southern region, particularly in the Middle and Late Moche periods, and they are apparently different from the partially described Northern Moche styles. The detailed study of these sequences provides evidence of some of the most striking cultural changes in the development of Moche society. In this presentation I will discuss the development of the Late Moche ceramics in Jequetepeque, correlating changes in style and iconography with mayor developments in regional history.

Claude Chapdelaine, University of Montreal
Moche Art Style in the Santa Valley : between being “à la mode” and developing a provincial identity
The Moche have developed a multi-valley state and the incorporation of the Santa Valley has always been a determinant factor to support the expansionist character of the Moche polity centered at the Huacas of Moche Site. The physical presence of a Moche population, large or small, has been proposed on the basis of the striking resemblance between the ceramic production in the Santa, Moche and Chicama Valleys. At a general level, the comparison of the well known ceramic categories is suggesting a similar stylistic evolution between the involved valleys and the maintenance of close ties through different socio-economic processes including migration. At a more detailed level, slight differences are recorded and discussed within the perspective of an emerging provincial identity that may have some direct influences on the socio-political organization of the southern Moche State. The observed differences between the Santa ceramic production and the style popular in the homeland valleys of Moche and Chicama maybe associated with a new autonomy of the Moche leaders ruling the frontiers. The Moche ceramic production in the Santa Valley is thus following a general Moche style with some decorative elements indicating a provincial identity.

Alana Cordy-Collins and Charles F. Merbs
Forensic Iconography and the Moche Giants
The discoveries between 1977 and 2000 of five Moche giants at the site of Dos Cabezas are the first reported cases of gigantism from prehistoric Peru. In addition to their significantly above-average stature, these five adult elite males suffered from an array of other osteological anomalies. Forensic analysis of the skeletons shows clear patterns that can be understood as reflecting specific behavioral postures. A review of Moche iconography reveals interesting parallels between a group of ceramic figures and the forensic evidence. Furthermore, the arrangement of the five burials suggests a certain hierarchy which is, to a degree, supported by the forensic data.

Christopher B. Donnan, UCLA
Moche Masking Traditions
To understand how the Moche made and used masks, evidence must be assembled from several sources: the artistic depictions of Moche masks being used, the Moche masks that are in museums and private collections today, and the instances of Moche masks that have been excavated archaeologically. No one of these sources alone could elucidate Moche masking traditions but, when combined, they indicate that the Moche made and used at least three different types of masks – each with its distinct form and distinct function: 1)  masks that were to be worn by the living, 2) masks that were to be worn by the dead, and 3) masks that were to animate cane coffins. After Moche society ended around AD 800, these masking traditions changed dramatically. 

Anne Marie Hocquenghem, CNRS
Una propuesta de analisis e interpretación de la iconografía Mochica reconsiderada trenta años despues: Sacrificios y Calendarios Ceremonial en las Sociedades de los Andes Centrales
En la iconografía prehispánica de los Andes centrales llaman la atención dos formas diferentes de dar muerte a seres humanos, por un lado prisioneros degollados y, por otro lado, hombres y mujeres supliciados. Retomando un método de análisis y de interpretación de los datos icónicos, propuesto en los años 70, vamos a tratar de mostrar el carácter sagrado de estas imágenes, de identificar a los actores y de reconstruir las circunstancias y los significados particulares de estos actos que se relacionarían con los ritos de propiciación y con los ritos de expiación.

Donna McClelland, Fowler Museum, UCLA
Ulluchu: An Elusive Fruit
The ulluchu appears in so many Moche images that it seems to be an important part of Moche ceremonies. What special properties does it contain? This paper continues the search begun in the early 1970's to identify the ulluchu plant. Since then, the Moche Archive has expanded its photographic collection of ulluchu depictions, and archaeological excavations have uncovered the remains of real ulluchus.

Jean-François Millaire, University of Montreal
Moche Textile Production of the Peruvian North Coast: A Contextual Analysis
This paper will explore the potential and limits of using the Moche system of representation to document specific aspects of ancient Peruvian technology. Because of the verisimilitude of Moche iconography, many specialists simply use complex scenes to illustrate their argument. One such scene is the weaver's florero from the British Museum collection, used by some to exemplify Moche work organization and social structure. Here it will be argued that the only way to understand this particular scene is to undertake a contextual analysis of Moche hand spinning and weaving technologies based on available data. In this paper, Moche iconography will be confronted to the archaeological record and the nature of the representations evaluated against other categories of information. It is hoped to contribute to the general theme of the conference by exploring the very thin and extremely fascinating interface that exist between iconographical and archaeological information on Moche societies.

Michael E. Moseley, University of Florida
Rain, and Sand : A Mega-Niño Horizon Marker in Late Moche Times
Exceptionally severe erosional damage, greatly exceeding 20th century El Niño norms, is documented at Jequetepeque Moche center of Dos Cabezas and its agrarian hinterland where flooding was followed by massive sand dune incursions that contributed to site abandonment. The dating and variable effects of these collateral natural disasters are reviewed and assessed in other areas of the Moche realm.

Jeffrey Quilter, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington
Art and Moche Martial Arts
Much of Moche art, especially in its later phases, celebrates warfare and sacrifice and scholars have used these images to infer the nature of conflict, ritual, and their social contexts. Some interpretations see Moche warfare as highly ritualized while, at the same time, Moche sacrifices were performed as the final act of military campaigns. This presentation will examine the issues surrounding warfare as ritual and ritual as warfare, the problems faced in this apparently close relationship, and their implications for understanding larger issues of Moche politics and society.

Izumi Shimada, Ken-ichi Shinoda, S. Bourget, W. Alva
MtDNA Analysis of Mochica Populations: Results and Implications
Recent excavations of well-preserved Mochica sacrificial victims and burials have provided us with a unique opportunity to shed light on some outstanding demographic, social, and political issues of Mochica archaeology through mtDNA analysis.  This paper presents salient findings of a large-scale mtDNA study of pre-Hispanic populations initiated in 1999. Maternal kinship relationships and haplotype composition and distribution defined by mtDNA analysis both support and question existing views concerning Mochica societies. Our study also illustrates the importance of sampling well-defined populations and situating mtDNA analysis within broader archaeological research for meaningful interpretations of the resulting genetic information.

Santiago Uceda, National University of Trujillo
Los Sacerdotes del Arco Bicéfalo: Tumbas y ajuares hallados en huaca de la Luna y los rituales moche
La iconografía compleja moche, tal como aparece en los ceramios y algunas edificaciones, ha sido una de las fuentes fundamentales para reconstruir parte del pensamiento de esta civilización, a falta de escritura. Desde la interpretación narrativa naturalista de esta imágenes dada por Rafael Larco, pasando las descripciones temáticas hasta las actuales consideraciones de estas imágenes como narraciones míticas y ceremoniales, la arqueología no habia aportado mucho a este debate. Los hallazgos de Sipán por Walter Alva y San José de Moro por Luis Jaime Castillo y Christopher Donnan, fueron los primeros descubrimientos arqueológicos hechos científicamente, que permitieron correlacionar exitosamente los contextos arqueológicos con las interpretaciones iconográficas. Nuestras excavaciones en el complejo de las Huacas del Sol y de la Luna, nos han permitido descubrir diversos contextos arqueológicos. De ellos se han recuperado atuendos y elementos emblemáticos de unos personajes que aparecen en una de las escenas complejas descritas como sacerdotes cacchando coca en un ritual de culto a la lluvia o fertilidad agraria. El Estudio de otras escenas iconográficas y ceramios escultóricos con personajes portando el mismo tipo de atuendo que el encontrado en Huaca de la Luna y correlación con otros contextos arqueológicos en Huaca de la Luna, nos llevan a la opinión que estas escenas y los rituales en ellos expresados tienen íntima relación con los sacrificios humanos. Finalmente, examinaremos algunas posibilidades de la estructura social moche que esta información nos brinda, especialmente sobre los roles que tuvieron los individuos que participaron en las batallas rituales, tanto los perdadores como ganadores de ellas.

John Verano, Tulane University
Diversity and Communality in Moche Human Sacrifice
Depictions of armed combat and the capture and sacrifice of prisoners are well-known in Moche iconography.  Since 1995, the iconographic record has been joined by archaeological evidence of the sacrificial practices themselves. The most dramatic discoveries have been made at the Huaca de la Luna in the Moche Valley, in small plazas located adjacent to the principal platform.  Excavations of these plazas, conducted between 1995 and 2001, have demonstrated a sequence of sacrificial rituals that extends over multiple centuries.  These sacrificial deposits show many common features, but also demonstrate substantial diversity in the treatment and deposition of the victims.  Such diversity raises new questions about the function and significance of human sacrifice at Moche ceremonial centers.

Moderators:

Terry Grieder, University of Texas, Austin
Joanne Pillsbury, University of Maryland