The Moche inhabited what is now the Peruvian north coast for nearly seven hundred years, between the first and the eighth centuries of our common era. Their origin, their history, and the nature of their political and religious structure are still a matter of debate. But greater advances than ever before have been made in the past two decades or so, and the picture of a complex and fascinating society is slowly emerging from their sand-covered sites and from the shelves of museums where thousands upon thousands of their exquisitely modeled and painted ceramics are waiting to be rediscovered. Thanks to a number of large-scale excavations and long-term archaeological projects, we now know that this ancient Andean society, perhaps the first one to attain the level of social complexity of a state, constructed cities with elaborate monumental edifices; specialized centers for the production of textiles, metallic objects, and ceramics; sectors for the elite and for the commoners; and numerous cemeteries.

These people, following a long tradition of irrigation engineering, diverted the flow of rivers into canals and reclaimed arable land from the arid coast. They developed a subsistence economy based on the agriculture of maize, beans, yucca, potatoes, camote, peanuts, squash, chili peppers, and a host of other plants of lesser importance. Various kinds of significant crops such as cotton and gourds were grown for the production of fishing nets. They very successfully exploited nearby marine and freshwater resources such as crustacean, mollusks, and fish. This bounty accounted for an important part of their dietary proteins. They raised ducks and guinea pigs and used domesticated animals such as dogs and llamas. They also hunted wild game such as deer and sea lions and collected other natural resources such as land snails and wild plants for food.

They possessed neither a writing system nor a clearly defined market economy. They actively, however, participated in long-distance exchange relations for the import of luxury goods seemingly crucial for their craft activities, sumptuary regalia, and rituals. The goods imported probably included lapis lazuli from the south; Strombus, conus, and Spondylus seashells from the warm seas to the north around the gulf of Guayaquil, Ecuador. From the Amazonian lowlands may have come parrot feathers, certain plants, and seeds. Yet many of these techniques and exchange systems were already well in place long before the Moche culture emerged in Peruvian prehistory.

The Moche themselves are most often remembered for their elaborate ritual ceramic vessels and for the creation of outstanding depictions of humans, animals, and beings with supernatural attributes. Larco was the first investigator to divide Moche ritual ceramics into phases (1948). His five-phase chronology (Phase I-V) is based on morpho-stylistic changes and overall decoration noted on ritual ceramics, especially the stirrup spout bottles. Although, the beginning of this seriation remains to be clearly defined, the sequential nature of Phase III and Phase IV has been firmly established at the Huacas de Moche site (Chapdelaine 2003). For these two phases the calibrated dates obtained at the site range from AD 250 to AD 700. Although the stylistic sequence established by Larco presents problems, especially with regard to the first two phases, Moche scholars still utilize it as the established chronology for fineware vessels (Donnan and McClelland 1999). Moche scholars still utilize it as the established chronology for fineware vessels (Donnan and McClelland 1999). If we disregard the Burial Theme representations, which are exclusively from Phase V, 90 percent of the examples used in this essay belongs to the Phase IV stylistic period.

Moche Visual Culture

Moche iconography is certainly one of the most intriguing and dynamic systems of representation from ancient Peru. With their striking iconography replete with a realism never surpassed in the Andean world, the Moche have inhabited our mindscape for more than a century. During this period, this system of representation has been perceived as a portal to their way of life, their customs, and their religious beliefs. This perception has probably more to do with the degree of realism of their beautifully painted and modeled ceramic vessels than with the very nature of the representations. Until recently, very little archaeological research had been done, and these highly suggestive and evocative scenes were one of the only sources of knowledge about the Moche culture itself.

The archaeology on the Moche is relatively recent. Notwithstanding the pioneering work of Max Uhle at the Huacas de Moche site in 1899, field investigations really began only after World War II (Kroeber 1925; Uhle 1913). Since the landmark discovery of high-ranking burials at the site of Sipán in 1987 (Alva 1988, 2001; Alva and Donnan 1993), a number of other long-term projects have been or are still being carried out at Moche sites such as the Huacas de Moche (Uceda et al. 1997, 1998, 2000), Huaca Cao Viejo (Franco et al. 1994), Dos Cabezas (Donnan 2001a, 2003a), and San José de Moro (Castillo 1996, 2001; Donnan and Castillo 1994) (figure 1.1). These contributions are providing us with a wealth of information concerning the Moche social and political organization, their urbanism, their economy, and, perhaps more importantly for the present study, their rituals, and religion.

As early as the beginning of the twentieth century, publications appeared on the subject of Moche iconography. Since then, dozens of contributions have been published on subjects as wide ranging as warfare, human sacrifice, craft activities, way of life, folk healing and shamanic practices, agricultural calendar, funerary practices, and rituals. The methods of analysis and the resulting interpretations of the material are almost as diverse as the number of authors and the seemingly infinite variety of representations. Indeed, not only our approaches were in some cases radically different but also our interpretations of the same scenes were sometimes situated at opposite ends of a distorted spectrum. The main reason for these discrepancies is possibly that Moche figurative pottery presents at the same time a seductive invitation to the analyst and a formidable challenge.

The complexity and the diversity of the representations, especially the fineline paintings, often make it possible to tackle a given image from a staggering variety of different and often divergent angles. For example, a scene representing warriors leading nude males (figure 1.2) has been interpreted as a depiction of Moche martial activities geared towards the expansion of their state-level society (Wilson 1988: 335) or, alternatively, as the outcome of ritualized battles leading eventually to rituals involving the sacrifice of the defeated Moche warriors (Bourget 2001a). How can it be? Is one of us wrong and the other one right? Can Moche iconography operate simultaneously at symbolic and political levels? Before even attempting to answer these issues of methodology and interpretation, some general and agreed-upon notions regarding the structure of this system of representation must be presented.

The main objectives of this essay are to explore concepts related to death, fertility, liminality, and afterlife in Moche funerary rituals and iconography. To do so, I will concentrate mostly on two broad subjects: the sexual representations and the scenes seemingly related to funerary rituals, commonly known as the Burial Theme (Donnan and McClelland 1979). Customary within the Moche iconographic system, specific subjects such as those found in the Burial Theme tend to have multiple roles and relate to more than one activity. To obtain a better idea of the subject's multiple roles, it becomes necessary to explore all avenues to document more thoroughly the subject under scrutiny. Therefore, I will touch upon a number of representations pertaining to other domains such as sacrificial rituals and maritime activities. Yet I hasten to say that these secondary subjects will not be examined in great detail. They will be used primarily to document better the themes and the subjects of the present study.

Subjects, Themes, and Narratives

Even if a cursory look gives the impression that this iconography is comprised of an infinite number of subjects and activities, that is not the case. Preliminary analyses reveal that there are relatively limited numbers of scenes and actors. The most complex activities usually consist of elaborately painted scenes often involving numerous individuals in sets of recurring actions such as the scene of warriors escorting eventual sacrificial victims already mentioned (figure 1.2).

Christopher Donnan (1975) initially developed the thematic approach. By tackling one of the most complex scenes, which he labeled "The Presentation Theme," he demonstrated that, in some cases, this representation can be shown in its entirety (figure 1.2), or parts of it can be depicted alone or in various combinations. As one example, he argued that the bird impersonator in the Presentation Theme, individual B in figure 1.4, can also appears as a separate subject in a sculptural form. This realization led him to recommend that "present-day researchers should be encouraged to go beyond a simple explanation of a given piece and to search for a basic theme to which it belongs" (Donnan 1975: 162).

With the scant archaeological record currently available to us, it remains unclear why certain elements of a given complex theme are susceptible to being singled out and represented on their own on an individual vessel. When isolated, the subjects are commonly treated in a three-dimensional form. Were such isolated units of a given theme then reunited in a single tomb? Or were they distributed among different but related burials? Could just one element standing on its own, such as the bird impersonator, have been sufficient to trigger the memory of the whole scene? Because of the extensive looting suffered by Moche temples and cemeteries, we may never be able to answer these questions properly. As it will rapidly become apparent, however, the internal system of relations between the diverse elements depicted in the iconography attest its high degree of cohesiveness.

Although there seems to be a certain degree of arbitrariness as to what constitutes a given theme when we compare it to another, to date I have identified about forty-five complex themes or scenes (Bourget 1994a). This number probably arose from a concern for exhaustiveness, since slightly fewer than twenty basic themes are generally recognized (Hocquenghem 1989: 21). The main reason for this discrepancy arises because specific themes are sometimes created in relation to the investigator's own objectives and methodology. For example, the sexual representations are usually organized in only one or two great ensembles; in the context of this study and for the sake of clarity, however, I have separated them into eight distinct groups: sodomy, masturbation, fellatio, sexual depictions on libation vases, anthropomorphic genitals, copulation between animals, copulation between animals and women, and copulation between Wrinkle Face and women. Regardless of this problem of definition, it appears true that a fairly restricted number of subjects are involved in specific sets of recurring activities. Furthermore, the separations between certain themes become less definitive than it would seem. For example, particularly during the terminal stylistic phase (Phase V), more than one theme might be depicted in an unusually complex fineline representation (figure 1.5). Moreover, what at first appear to represent unrelated themes may appear on distinct parts of a single vessel, especially on Phase IV ceramics.

These additions and juxtapositions suggest that some themes may represent parts of a much greater and elaborate story or narrative. These narratives are perhaps the most difficult aspect to investigate and to demonstrate convincingly. They offer the possibility that many complex representations may not just depict a posture or an activity frozen in time but may recount a lengthy ritual, an elaborate myth, or both at the same time. In some cases, such as in the complex scenes of vaginal copulation and the Burial Theme, a sequence of actions appears to have been represented, one frame at a time, almost like a storyboard. In other situations, it is also possible the story may have been conflated so that actions taking place at different moments within the sequence are depicted all together in a single representation. These are important aspects that will be explored in much greater detail later, because they will provide insight into the interconnections between themes as well as some methodological grounding for the resulting interpretations. Although opinions differ as to what constitutes a narrative or what any given narrative may represent, most investigators acknowledge their existence.

Even though these scenes and themes have often been studied in isolation, the reality is that they form part of a complete symbolic project. As briefly mentioned earlier, in the most complex scenes, recurring sets of actors appear performing different tasks. For example, in the Presentation Theme (figure 1.3), a number of subjects Donnan (1975) labeled individuals A, B, C, D, and E are also depicted in scenes of warfare, carried on litters, or standing in reed boats, indicating that these actions formed part of their realm of activities or that these scenes may be depicting the crucial moments of a more complex narrative.

Apart from the subjects depicted in the Presentation Theme, there seems to exist at least two other important groups of actors. The first group, a pair usually represented together, is comprised of an individual with a wrinkled face, possessing prominent fangs in his mouth and wearing a snake belt that terminates in fox heads (figure 1.6). He is often seen wearing a tunic with a step motif and an elaborate headdress made of a semicircular fan with long feathers and adorned with an animal effigy, usually a spotted feline or a fox. His companion takes the guise of an anthropomorphic iguana. Iguana generally sports a long tunic, a bulging cloth tied around the waist or the neck, and a headdress made with long feathers and a bird effigy, usually a condor (figure 1.6). Both are consistently depicted in the scenes of vaginal copulation and in the Burial Theme. In most scenes where the pair is depicted together, Iguana seems to be subservient to Wrinkle Face, and as such, he has usually been perceived as his assistant. The second group, perhaps as frequently shown as the first, contains skeletal beings and individuals with their lips and nose missing (figure 1.7). These subjects also constitute an integral part of the themes explored here.

Ideally, because of the interrelationships between these two broad themes and the rest of the iconography, they cannot and should not be isolated from the rest of the corpus to be studied productively and understood correctly, as this would run the risk of obscuring the meaning of these scenes and rendering the resulting analyses misleading. It would thus appear that selecting one or two themes and treating them somewhat separately would constitute if not an impossible project, most probably a fruitless one. Keeping this caveat in mind, I would nevertheless propose that the cluster of scenes loosely associated with sexual representations, and the second one apparently depicting funerary activities, can be studied together. Indeed, their analysis will show that these scenes often portray similar actors and activities, suggesting that they may have been perceived as conceptually and cognitively related.

Iconography, Archaeology, and Identity

The problem of determining if the activities depicted in Moche iconography were the representations of rituals or myths has been one of the major subjects of research. The main question is, Were these the representations of activities that really existed, or were these scenes relating to supernatural subjects and activities? Hocquenghem (1989) and Makowski (2000) suggested that in some cases, two types of representations were present, some of them depicting real people performing specific rituals, and others depicting deities or beings with supernatural attributes involved in some kind of mythical activities (Hocquenghem 1989; Makowski 2000). Of course, to discern what may have really taken place and what may have been part of a mythical realm is of critical importance to bring this iconography into the social sphere. At this stage of the investigation, I do not think that it is possible to clearly delimit these boundaries or even their existence. Nevertheless, important progress has recently been made in the field of archaeology, especially concerning the identity and reality of some of the most important subjects and rituals of the iconography.

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. I will review, albeit briefly, these identifications and the basis for them. The aim of this section is not to resolve the issue of the interrelations existing between real people and representations; that would take us on a different path than the one being pursued. Nevertheless, the section will provide the conceptual framework needed to explore in the present essay what roles the main subjects perform.

Presentation Theme

In 1987, the chance seizure of golden artifacts looted from the site of Sipán led to the discovery and excavation of extremely complex Moche burials (figure 1.1). Due to the periodic appearance of exquisite Moche metal artifacts in the illicit antiquities market, archaeologists had long suspected that such funerary contexts existed; until then, however, looters and antiquity dealers had always beaten the archaeologists to the finishing line. Over a period of about twelve years, Walter Alva and his crew unearthed in a small platform the tombs of at least ten high-ranking individuals buried with a retinue of people and numerous ceremonial artifacts (Alva 1990, 1994, 2001; Alva and Donnan 1993). On the basis of the corresponding objects such as headdresses, bells, golden backflaps and scepters, two of the buried individuals, both male, Donnan eventually identified them as the main protagonists, A and B, of the Presentation Theme (figure 1.32; Alva and Donnan 1993).

The association is particularly convincing between individual A the person in Tomb 1, an adult male between 35 and 45 years of age, who was found with similar golden crescent headdress, circular earspools, and numerous crescent-shaped backflaps (figure 1.32, A; Alva and Donnan 1993: 55-125). The relative size of the objects even matched those depicted on the individual in the representation of the Presentation Theme. Furthermore, a metallic rattle terminating in a sharp chisel and found in the right hand of the buried male is very similar to the object depicted just above the litter in the lower section of the scene (figure 1.3, a). This litter can be assigned to individual A, given the close resemblance between its decoration of rays terminating in animal heads and those that surround him. The low-relief scenes etched around the four trapezoidal faces and the top section of the golden rattle found in the burial depict the same subject. They illustrate an elaborately garbed warrior bringing down an opponent with a blow to the face. The vanquished is already shown as a prisoner, with his hands tied behind his back. This depiction may be part of a conflated narrative, representing in a single scene a ritual battle between two opponents, the capture of the defeated warrior, the removal of the opponent's clothing, and finally the display of the vanquished, with his hands tied behind his back. Each of these actions is usually found on distinct scenes, and Donnan has convincingly demonstrated that they belonged to a very precise sequence of events:

Once captured, some or all of the opponent's clothing was removed, a rope was placed around his neck, and his hands were sometimes tied behind his back. The victor then held the rope tied to the prisoner's neck and marched him off the field of battle. The prisoners were taken to a place where they were formally arraigned. One scene shows them being brought into a ceremonial precinct, defined by large pyramids with temple structures at their summits [figure 1.7]. Following arraignment, there was a ceremony in which the prisoners were sacrificed. Their throats were cut, and their blood was consumed in tall goblets. (1997: 52-53)

Although the description of the sequence Donnan suggested is likely, most scenes depicting warriors leading nude males do not represent them as captured prisoners in this way. They usually depict them with a rope around their necks but with their hands doing specific, highly ritualized gestures, such as a raised fist or with the defeated warrior pointing in the direction of his captor (figures 1.2, 1.8). Such gestures are often associated with rituals of sacrifice, suggesting that the eventual sacrifice of the warrior may already be embedded, or conflated, in the parading of these defeated warriors. The conflation of narratives is thus an important device used to convey complex stories in a single representation.

The identification of individual B with the main person buried in Tomb 2, an adult male also of 35 to 45 years of age, is based on the presence of an owl headdress, a backflap, and a copper cup lying near his right hand (Alva and Donnan 1993: 163). It is thus worth noting that, in this case, a living being has been related to an iconographical subject consistently depicted with supernatural attributes, such as the one possessing the head and the wings of a nocturnal bird (figure 1.3). The great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) may have provided the model for this subject. The identification between a bird-being and a real person can have profound consequences for the understanding of representations depicting what have often been perceived as supernatural subjects and their relations with rituals that may have existed.

On the basis of human remains and ritual artifacts found near the burials already mentioned, Alva and Donnan stated that this "Sacrifice Ceremony" had really taken place at the site:

Moreover, the ritual offerings of amputated hands and feet that we excavated on the south platform strongly imply that the Sacrifice Ceremony was actually performed at or near this pyramid, and that the remains resulting from its enactment were ritually buried in the pyramid itself. For the first time, then, we have been able to make a direct correlation between a ceremonial event depicted in Moche art and the individuals who performed that ceremony, the place where it was enacted, and the disposal of ritual remains after the ceremony was completed. (1993: 223)

Although it is not the place here to present the full analysis of Tomb 3, found in the earliest construction phase of the same platform, I would suggest that this burial of a man in his late forties, also known as the Old Lord, may have in fact been the living representative of individual D on the illustrious line-up of the Presentation Theme (figure 1.2). In this case, this individual could be recognized by, among other attributes the animated scepter standing just behind him. This anthropomorphized object is holding a disk (figure 1.3, b [upper right]). The actual object found in the right hand of the Old Lord was a gold rattle that terminates in a chisel (Alva and Donnan 1993: 181, fig. 195).

It is thus interesting to note that individuals A and D would both have been buried with scepters, constituting not only some sort of badge of office but also very efficient tools for human sacrifice. The blades of these chisels are considerably narrower than those of the usual crescent-blade knives, suggesting that they may have been employed during specific sacrificial activities such as cutting arterial veins for collecting blood. The crescent-blade knife, commonly known as tumi, is a rather crude implement that may have been used more extensively for decapitation and dismemberment.

A few years later, at San José de Moro in the Jequetepeque Valley, Donnan and Luis Jaime Castillo (1992, 1994) discovered two elaborate burials of two women, each of whom was eventually linked to individual C of the Presentation Theme (figure 1.3). Since then, they have been known as the priestesses of San José de Moro. Their cane coffins, rectangular boxes made of six cane panels tied together with ropes, had been given anthropomorphic features by the addition of legs, arms, and a sizeable mask, all made of a silver copper alloy. Tassels of the same metal, acting as headdresses, had once been planted on each side of the mask. The general form of these decorations is in many respects almost identical to the serrated-edge extensions or plumes worn by individual C in the Presentation Theme scene (figure 1.3). Furthermore, in the ritual paraphernalia found with the buried women, ceremonial goblets identical in form to the one exchanged between individuals A and B were found. In the tomb of the first priestess, excavated in 1991, the ceramic goblet had been decorated with a fineline painting associated with war and sacrifice. It depicts the procession of a series of anthropomorphized shields and clubs holding a cup in their hands (figure 1.9).

The burial of the second priestess is particularly important to us, as it contained a rare burial scene found in its original context. During the burial, ritual attendants had carefully placed the bottle depicting a Burial Theme into one of the niches of the funerary chamber. We shall return to this burial later and discuss in some detail its contents—especially the spatial organization of some of the artifacts, including this bottle (Chapter 4).

Finally, the reanalysis of a tomb, Burial 10,excavated in 1946 at the site of Huaca de la Cruz in the Virú Valley also permitted the identification of an additional subject of the Presentation Theme (Strong and Evans 1952: 147-149). The burial contained the body of a middle-aged woman in a cane-wrapped bundle with a wooden staff resting upon her pelvis and chest. The staff led Daniel Arsenault (1994) to identify her as individual E, the figure performing a human sacrifice on the lower register of the Presentation Theme scene (figure 1.3). The well-preserved staff measures 71 cm in length and has carved in its upper section a woman sitting on a raised dais (figure 1.10). Her back is resting against a base of the four prongs. Two smaller human figures are seated in front of her knees. Similarly, individual E in the Presentation Theme appears as an anthropomorphized staff drawing blood from a man with bound hands. The four prongs form part of her headdress, and the extremity of the staff can be seen as a sharp point appearing between her legs (figure 1.3, E). This identification is further reinforced by the depiction of a four-prong staff in association with a war club and a shield immediately to the right of individual E (figure 1.3, c). Although it has not been possible to elicit the exact meaning of the buried staff, in the iconography it appears to be clearly associated with the practice of warfare and human sacrifice.

The relation of the feminine gender with sacrifice is further strengthened by the presence of a second burial, Burial 5, situated in the vicinity of Burial 10 (Strong and Evans 1952: 141-145). It contained the cane-wrapped body of an adult female in her twenties, along with a sacrificed llama and sixteen vessels. Among the ceramic offerings, three deserve mention in the context of this research. The first one is the portrait-head vessel of a man wearing tubular ear ornaments and an elaborate headdress or head ring decorated with the heads of two falcons (figure 1.10). The second object is a rattle-pedestal base goblet almost identical to the one found in the tomb of the first priestess at San José de Moro (Strong and Evans 1952: pl. XVI, i). The third is a jar decorated with a fineline painting depicting two anthropomorphic war clubs. The first one, on the left, has a square shield and is holding a white goblet. He is toasting with another war club, to the right, also holding a goblet that is painted red (figure 1.12). The different colors of the cups suggest that one is depicted as empty (white) and the second one as filled perhaps with blood (red). Incidentally, the animated club on the right has a disk in his left hand, indicating that this representation may be part of the Presentation Theme as well.

It is thus possible that the women found in Burials 5 and 10 were intimately connected to rituals of human sacrifice. These two burials belong to Phase IV stylistic period. Moche women, as shown both in the iconography and in the archaeology, may have actively been involved especially with rituals regarding the collection of blood and its presentation, during perhaps the most elaborate ceremonies in which humans were sacrificed. The identity of the two subjects in the Presentation Theme as women is strengthened by the fact that they both wear the same tunic, long braids that terminate in animal heads, and identical facial paintings (figure 1.3). The archaeological contexts from Huaca de la Cruz would thus reinforce previous identifications of the figures as female that were made some years earlier, solely on the basis of the iconographical representations (Hocquenghem and Lyon 1980).

With the discovery of cups in the tombs of the San José de Moro priestesses, and their ubiquitous presence in numerous representations, it became of critical importance to assess if such objects may have been used to contain human blood. To test for the presence of blood, we have had the opportunity to carry out an analysis of two pedestal base cups, one from the Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin, and the other from the Museo de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia de la Universidad de Trujillo. The objects, albeit without secure provenience, were tested by immunological analysis, and we found that they once contained human blood (Bourget and Newman 1998). The cup from Berlin is decorated in low relief and depicts a complete sequence of battle, defeat, and capture (figure 1.13). Like the cups discovered in the burials of San José de Moro and Huaca de la Cruz, the representation circumambulating the cup reinforces the strong connection that may have existed between ritual warfare, capture, and blood sacrifice, as mentioned above.

The main question regarding these discoveries thus becomes: Have sacrificial ceremonies similar to those depicted by the iconography taken place anywhere other than at Sipán? One has to acknowledge not only that representations of most of the individuals have been found at various other Moche sites but that many objects that could have been used during these rituals also have been located in situ at other sites or in numerous collections: chisels, cups, circular disks, staffs, and other objects. Furthermore, some of these objects, analyzed by Margaret Newman, tested positive for the presence of human blood (Bourget and Newman 1998). It is thus very likely that ceremonies involving these individuals may have been carried out at spatially and chronologically separated Moche sites.

The burials found at San José de Moro date to the early eighth century, considerably more recent than those of Sipán, which date to around the fourth century. In 1958, a mural depicting the Sacrifice Ceremony was found nearly 300 km to the south of Sipán at Pañamarca in the Nepeña Valley, the southern limit of Moche territory (see, e.g., figure 4.44; Bonavia 1985). Donnan mentions a mural depicting a series of anthropomorphized shields and clubs holding a goblet, located at La Mayanga in the Lambayeque valley (1972; 1978: 173, figure 255). This motif closely resembles the scenes painted on the San José de Moro cup and the jar from Huaca de la Cruz (figures 1.9, 1.12). The images at La Mayanga possibly date to the late Moche V phase (Bonavia 1985: 99-104). The breadth of time and space spanning these representations and associated objects thus confirms that during a period of at least three to four hundred years, the ritual activity depicted in the Presentation Theme may have been regularly enacted all over the region under Moche control by high-ranking individuals wearing similar regalia and using the same paraphernalia. Regarding this striking diachronic and synchronic homogeneity, Alva and Donnan mention that

the fact that the Sacrifice Ceremony was so widespread in both time and space strongly implies that it was part of a state religion, with a priesthood in each part of the kingdom composed of nobles who dressed in prescribed ritual attire. When members of the priesthood died, they were buried at the temple where the Sacrifice Ceremony took place, wearing the objects they had used to perform the ritual. Subsequently, other men and women were chosen to replace them, to dress like them, and to perform the same ceremonial role. (1993: 226)

The remarkable consistency shown both by the iconographical representations and by those acting in the role of these individuals reveals the pervasiveness and the importance of the Presentation Theme. It further implies that ceremonies involving human sacrifice, especially the taking and partaking of human blood, were central to Moche religion and ideology. Such iconographic and ritual conservatism attested in the identifications of high-ranking individuals reinforces the view that Moche iconography maintained a high degree of coherency, providing ample justification for detailed analyses of further related scenes and subjects. Therefore, I will now attempt to establish the physical identity of four other subjects of the iconography within the social world of the Moche.

Wrinkle Face and Iguana

Wrinkle Face and Iguana are among the most prominent subjects of Moche iconography (figure 1.6). Apart from the Presentation Theme, they frequently appear in other complex activities. They are of course deeply involved in some of the most important scenes of sexual activity, and their presence is ubiquitous in the Burial Theme. But could these two individuals, consistently represented with supernatural attributes, have real-life counterparts such as the individuals we saw associated with the Presentation Theme? I will begin by assessing their presence at the Huaca de la Cruz site and then turn my attention to the Huacas de Moche (figure 1.1). Huacas de Moche includes the Huaca de la Luna, the Huaca del Sol, and the urban sector.

Huaca de La Cruz

In 1946, during their last day of fieldwork at Huaca de la Cruz, Duncan Strong and Clifford Evans encountered the most complex Moche burial found until the discovery of the Sipán mausoleum some forty years later (1947; 1952). This large burial, Burials 12-16, also known as the Warrior-Priest tomb, contained the remains of five persons, along with a vast array of offerings (Strong and Evans 1952: 150-167). I will describe this tomb in some detail, as it will provide us with a number of elements directly related to the present study.

A digging stick was the first object encountered in the fill during the excavation at 1.75 m below the surface. The archaeologists mentioned that this wooden tool could have been used during the preparation of the burial and discarded afterwards. The whole burial lay directly underneath this stick, at a depth of 2.85 m to 3.4 m. The uppermost burial just on top of the main coffin was that of a strongly built man in his forties. He was resting on his back with his knees and ankles tightly tied together. Copper and cotton offerings had been placed in his mouth and on his wrists. Three ceramic vessels and eight gourd bowls filled with maize, beans, and unspun cotton had been placed alongside the body. At the head of the burial was a flaring bowl containing a bat-effigy cup. A sea lion-effigy jar was also placed nearby.

Wedged in between this first burial and lying right on top of the main burial beneath it were the bones of two decapitated llamas. Their heads were nowhere to be seen. Five vessels were associated with the animals. Two of those are of particular interest. The first one is a second bat-effigy cup almost identical to the first one described above. The second one was the body of a bottle with the stirrup spout missing. It was painted with a depiction of a club and two spears covered by a shield. A bird is standing to the right side of the war implements.

The main coffin in the burial contained the remains of an adolescent boy and the so-called Warrior-Priest, flanked by two women. The first woman, a person in her thirties, was placed in a seated position in the lower right corner. Her back was against the north wall of the tomb. A stirrup spout bottle lay on her lap (figure 1.14). A small figure with legs spread apart and both hands clasped in front of her mouth was modeled on top of the bottle (figure 1.15). As to the woman's cause of death, a cotton sash wound around her neck led the investigators to suggest that she may have been strangled (Strong and Evans 1952: 152).

The second woman, who was also in her thirties, was in a similarly cramped position, but she was situated diagonally across from the previous one, at the head of the main coffin at its left-hand corner. Although her chest was now slumped over her knees, she too originally probably had her back against the wall of the tomb. Three vessels were associated with her. A stirrup spout bottle with an effigy on top of the bottle was resting close to her hands. A portrait vessel and another stirrup spout bottle were nearby. The bottle by her hands depicts a small figure in a seated position on top of the chamber of the vessel, with hands resting on its knees (figure 1.15). The sex of this figure is difficult to ascertain. On the vessel in front of this person, three funerary offerings are painted: two stacked gourd bowls filled with food and a stirrup spout bottle on the right side of the bowls.

The main coffin, a rectangular box made of reed canes lashed together, had been covered with a textile decorated with anthropomorphic bean warriors, each holding a round shield and a club (Strong and Evans 1952: pl. XXIX). Inside the coffin, the corpses and diverse elements had been divided into two levels by a cane platform separating the bodies and some of the offerings (figure 1.17).

Upon the cane platform lay the body of a boy eight to ten years of age. He was covered with a vast array of grave goods such as boxes, feather plumes, ceramics, and a bird headdress. The headdress was a complex artifact made of a ring of split fibres, cloth, and feathers of different colors and of two imitation bird heads, one on each side (figure 1.18). An inverted V-shaped design made of feathers was still well preserved on the front part. As this headdress has been deposited directly on the chest of the child, it is entirely possible that this object belonged to him and had been worn during his lifetime. The headdress with the inverted V-shaped design in the center is similar to the headdress depicted on the portrait vessel found in Burial 5, which contained the body of the woman with the goblet, mentioned above (figure 1.11).

Four vessels were directly associated with this young individual: a flaring bowl, a dipper, and two portrait vessels. The first portrait was that of an adult male, and the second one was that of a child. The latter, a head bottle in the form of a potato, is certainly one of the most intriguing vessels found with him (figure 1.18). The artist has used the natural deformities of the potato to form a childlike portrait. It also has a facial decoration consisting of a cross running through the center of the face, with a protuberance on the forehead, and a dot decorating each corner of a triangular mouth. The "eyes" of the potato have cleverly been used to form the eyes and the mouth of the portrait. Although we can only speculate if the artist was trying to capture the features of the boy in life, it is striking to see that this contorted portrait of a child accompanied a young individual with an equally deformed cranial face:

The skull was deformed, with a pronounced lateral parietal flattening that caused the occipital to bulge out. The supra-orbital ridges, mastoid processes, and teeth were all massive for a child. The upper medial and lateral incisors were prominently grooved and shovel-shaped. The eruption of the second molars was incomplete. The jaw was extremely heavy with a pronounced overbite. (Strong and Evans 1952: 155)

This boy was resting on the lower right side of the main individual, an old man who was also resting on his back. He was covered and surrounded by numerous offerings. Three elaborate wooden staffs lay across his chest. On top of the first, a finely carved owl is standing in an upright position on top of a series of six wave patterns (figure 1.20). The second staff is a bulbous-shaped mace. All around the head of the club there is an elaborately carved scene of ritual warfare leading to the capture of three prisoners (figure 1.21).

The third staff is certainly the most important one in determining the identity of the principal occupant of the tomb. The top of this object depicts Wrinkle Face holding a long staff in his hands and standing on what appears to be a series of furrows (figure 1.22). He seems to be breaking the ground with the stick, while a child standing on his right side is carrying a bag across his chest and is dropping seeds in the furrows. The seeds are made of three small turquoise pieces glued onto the left hand of the child. The tip of this object, with the sculpture on its summit, is made of a flat copper blade, 19 cm in length by 4 cm in width. It is thus likely that this ceremonial digging implement may have been used over many years during agricultural rituals.

In addition to this staff, a number of other elements seemed to connect the principal occupant of the tomb with Wrinkle Face. Near his head, an animal-effigy headdress made of animal bones, fur, and metallic parts was found. It appears that the jawbones of a desert fox (Lycalopex sechurae) had been used to fashion this headdress. Found in association with a sort of round pillow and a fan made of feathers, it is almost identical to the one worn by Wrinkle Face on the third staff. The old man also had a copper disk placed on his face, measuring 16 cm in diameter. This object, embossed with a series of raised circles all around the outer edge of the disk, is identical to those of ritual runners frequently depicted on ceramics (figure 1.23), which Strong and Evans already noted (1952: 160).

Three of the ceramic offerings also represented Wrinkle Face. The first one is the Mountain Sacrifice Ceremony, a well-known activity in which Wrinkle Face and sometimes Iguana are involved in a sacrificial activity that takes place in a mountain setting (figure 1.24). Painted on the body of the second stirrup spout bottle, Wrinkle Face is about to decapitate a long fish with a tumi knife (figure 1.25). A person, also with fangs in his mouth, helps him to secure the fish. On the third example, Wrinkle Face has caught a fish at the end of a fishing line. He now wears the two-pronged headdress associated with individuals involved in marine scenes. Among the other ceramic vessels found within the main burial with the Wrinkle Face ceramic images were a deer-hunting scene, a portrait-head bottle, and a warrior wearing a conical helmet (figure 1.26).

On the basis of numerous similarities noted between the artifacts and the main individual in the tomb, Strong and Evans surmised that the old man may well have been the living representative of the fanged deity so prominently displayed in the iconography:

Thus, from these major artifacts alone, it can be concluded that the old man buried beneath these offerings not only represented in his own person the great tusked deity of the Mochica but that in this incarnation he had to assume the economic roles of an agricultural deity, a priest, a war leader, and a councillor as well. This combination of vital roles, plus many more, for the most-often depicted Mochica deity will surprise no one who has studied the very numerous ceramic and other portrayals of this god gathered together by Larco. However, to find direct evidence of a human being who, in his own lifetime, appears to have assumed these roles in the eyes of his people, makes the record written in ceramics and other portrayals even more vivid. (1952: 199)

I would entirely agree with the authors as to the identification of the male individual as Wrinkle Face. This identification has not been made only on a few elements but on a vast array of artifacts such as headdresses, staffs, ceramics, and other objects. At the time—1952—this came as a bold statement, as no other identification had yet been convincingly established between a living representative of Moche society and iconographical representations. Strong and Evans also hinted not only that this old man may have personified during his life this "Tusked Deity," or "Wrinkle Face" as he is known today, but that this impersonation may have taken its roots in the past during the Early Horizon: "That he represented in his own person the, even then, very ancient lineage of the tusked god seems certain" (Strong and Evans 1952: 198). This is an interesting and important idea, as the facial features of this subject clearly existed before the Moche period and are especially prevalent during the Cupisnique period (500-200 BC; Campana and Morales 1997).

Although as solid a case cannot be made as to the exact identity of the child, I would suggest that he may have been associated with Iguana, the main assistant of Wrinkle Face in most contexts. This identification derives from the presence of the bird headdress resting on the chest of the child (figure 1.18). Iguana always wears bird headdresses, which is by far the most distinctive element of this subject.

Huaca de la Luna

At Huaca de la Luna, four tombs bear a number of similarities that may indicate that these were the final resting places of Wrinkle Face priests as well. In 1899 Max Uhle excavated the first pair, F-12 and F-26, in an adobe structure situated on the eastern side of the Huaca main platform (1913). Unfortunately, the field notes do not give any detailed information as to the human remains or the exact content or the organization of the burials (Kroeber 1925). Nevertheless, a number of ceramic vessels found in these burials are iconographically similar in many respects to those found in other tombs with a more secure context (Table 1.1, Platform Uhle).

The second pair of tombs—Tomb 1 and Tomb 2-3—came from the excavations of Platform II. This small platform is a solid mudbrick structure associated with a plaza, Plaza 3A, where a complex sacrificial site was discovered (Bourget 2001a). Although both sets of burials, Tomb 1 and Tomb 2-3 had been looted, they contained numerous elements linking them with the practice of ritual warfare and sacrificial rituals. They also show a number of similarities with the Warrior-Priest tomb of Huaca de la Cruz. For instance, both tombs contained the human remains of an old man associated with an adolescent boy. Tomb 1 had been severely looted in recent times; remaining in the burial chamber, however, we found a bottle representing a warrior wearing a conical helmet and holding a bulbous-shaped mace (figure 1.27). A wooden club was also located in the looter's exit shaft (figure 1.28). The black residue covering the club was tested by immunological analysis, and it reacted to human blood antiserum only, strongly suggesting that this implement had been repeatedly drenched in human blood. This led us to suggest that this club was one of the sacrificial tools used in the plaza down below (Bourget and Newman 1998).

The second tomb consisted of two funerary chambers built side by side, also containing an old man and a boy. It is likely that these chambers had been looted during colonial times, because most of the ceramics, some of the finest found at Huaca de la Luna, remained in situ, but the metallic objects, except a small circular disk in gilded copper, had presumably been removed. Originally this metallic disk would have probably been sewn onto a textile adorned with hundreds of identical pieces. Of the vast number of elaborate ceramics excavated in this context, many of them closely match the subjects found in the Huaca de la Cruz tomb. Among the offerings were fifteen pairs of apparently similar vessels (figures 1.29, 1.30); a jar in the shape of a ritual runner (figure 1.31); three vessels in the form of individuals with conical helmets; a fineline painting of raptorial birds with shields (figure 1.32); clubs and cups painted on a flaring bowl; two portrait-head bottles, one of them with a mutilated face (figure 1.7); a fineline painting with an elaborate boat scene (figure 1.33); and finally, a bottle with Wrinkle Face fishing for a stingray (figure 1.34). Further associations with human blood and ritual warfare were marked by the presence of an anthropomorphic fox holding a chisel (figure 1.35), bone heads in the shape of ulluchu fruits (figure 1.36), and a ceramic vessel depicting three prisoners, one of them shown here (figure 1.37). The human remains, the types of ceramic vessels, and the artifacts of interest for this analysis are listed in table 1.1.

Ritual Runners

A disk or a shovel-shaped plaque adorning the central part of a headdress is the most diagnostic, identifying element of Ritual Runners in the iconography (figure 1.23). They are consistently depicted running bare chested (Donnan and McClelland 1999: 128). At the Huacas de Moche site, in the vast urban sector situated in between Huaca de la Luna and Huaca del Sol, a number of individuals have been found buried with copper disks, similar to those depicted in the iconography, indicating that they may have performed rituals closely associated with this subject. In the Chan Chan-Moche Valley Project, at least five burials have been excavated with male individuals possessing such disks that formed part of headdresses. On the basis of this context and a detailed reading of the iconography, Donnan and Mackey suggested that

the group of burials within the mud-brick platform between the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon is distinct within the sample of Moche IV burials. The burials are all high status adult males, many of whom have large copper disc headdresses like those worn by certain individuals shown in Moche art. The concentration of these burials on the mud-brick platform suggests that this was a cemetery reserved exclusively for high status adult males who apparently shared an affiliation to a specific Moche ceremony. Within our sample of ancient burials from the Moche Valley, this is the only example of a cemetery reserved for a specific sex, age, status, and/or social group. (1978: 208)

It thus came as a great surprise when years later, during the excavations of the ZUM Project (Zona Urbana Moche), the tomb of a woman was found with such a disk as a headdress. The burial was situated within a complex in the urban sector. She also had a ceremonial copper knife or tumi, suggesting that she may have played a role during sacrificial rituals (Chapdelaine 2001: 80). Her iconography, and thus her identification, is uncertain, but she may have been associated in one way or another with the ritual runners.

Ceremonial Badminton

A burial excavated in the same mudbrick platform, excavated by the Chan Chan-Moche Valley Project, contained the remains of possibly another significant iconographic subject. The burial was that of a male individual in his late forties. He had been buried with a round copper sheath and metallic crosspieces. The relative position of these objects in the burial suggests that they were once attached to a long shaft (Donnan and Mackey 1978: 154). A few years later, Donnan proposed that the presence of this object could perhaps indicate that this male had been a player of Ceremonial Badminton6 (figure 1.38): "Perhaps this very individual participated in the ceremony, casting the staff with crosspieces skyward from the summit of the Pyramid of the Sun, and then watching the string unwind and float slowly downward over the very spot where he was eventually buried" (1985: 375). Interestingly, the burial also contained a stirrup spout bottle decorated with a fineline painting depicting a procession of anthropo-zoomorphic ritual runners. This suggests that both activities, Ceremonial Badminton and ritual running, were closely related and performed by the same individuals; hence the reason for burying this man in the same mudbrick structure as the others.

Coca-Taking Ceremony

In 1991 and 1992, during the excavation of the Huaca de la Luna main platform, two burials were discovered just alongside one of the principal murals of the complex (Uceda et al. 1994). It would appear that the two interred male individuals pertained to the Huaca de la Luna priesthood and, because of this association, had earned the right to be buried within the most important part of the building during one of its last phases of transformation. Both of them had close to their hands a copper bottle (figure 1.39). This object is, in many respects, identical to those represented in a scene identified as an activity of taking coca (figure 1.40). Furthermore, the individual in the second tomb possessed an animal effigy made of gilded copper that was almost identical to those worn by the standing figure in the fineline painting (figure 1.40). On the basis of these elements, especially the two metallic bottles, I suggested that these were priests of the same type as those performing a ritual under a bicephalous arch (1994b). A few years later, a cache containing a similar effigy was located in the vicinity of these tombs (figure 1.41). It thus confirmed once more an association between these specific individuals and the Huaca de la Luna main platform.

Prisoners and Portrait-Head Vessels

Perhaps the most interesting aspect that arose from the excavation of the Plaza 3A sacrificial site at Huaca de la Luna was the unmistakeable physical confirmation of the relationship existing between enacted ritual and the iconography. This interrelation did not have to be extrapolated from nonassociated artifacts and representations. Instead, the human remains had been supplemented by numerous offerings that clearly confirmed this link. At least seventy male individuals had been sacrificed over the course of a number of rituals (figure 1.42). The physical evidence of ancient, well-healed injuries as well as wounds suffered soon before death indicated that these men were probably warriors who had been captured during violent encounters (Verano 2001). Purposely destroyed and situated between these victims were more than fifty clay statuettes representing nude males in seated positions with ropes around their necks (figures 1.43, 1.44). These statuettes, up to 60 cm tall, represent three-dimensional examples of the prisoners usually depicted in fineline paintings (figure 1.45). The figures possess identical haircuts, and their bodies are adorned with similar, intricate designs.

Another important aspect of these statuettes is their close association with portrait vessels. Donnan (2001b, 2004) has demonstrated that the same individual can be successively represented as a high-ranking individual wearing an intricate headdress and fancy earspools, as a warrior holding war implements, as a captive with his hands tied behind his back, and, finally, as a sacrificial victim completely nude with a rope around his neck and with his hands resting on his knees. It is this very posture that the clay statuettes represent. Thus it can be suggested that portrait vessels may have been directly associated with the activity of ritual warfare, a point of view equally shared by Donnan:

It is more likely that the combat in which the individuals engaged was not military, but ceremonial, and took place within the three valleys [Chicama-Moche-Virú] where the portraits are known to have been produced. The ceremonial rather than militaristic nature of Moche combat has been proposed by various scholars. Capture and sacrifice of some of the participants would have been the predictable outcome of involvement in this activity. The Moche appear to have been using portraiture as a means of commemorating the capture and sacrifice of specific individuals whose role, status, and appearance were well known in Moche society. (2001b: 137-138)

Although more research will need to be carried out to assess all the roles performed in the iconography by the individuals represented in portrait vessels, it appears that ritual warfare and sacrifice provide the main conceptual framework for these activities. At Huaca de la Cruz, the association between portrait vessels and sacrifice seems to be reinforced by the presence of such a bottle in the tomb of the woman buried with a sacrificial goblet, Burial 5, and the scene depicting anthropomorphized war clubs exchanging sacrificial goblets (figure 1.12). At the same site, two additional portrait-head bottles were also found with a woman and a child in the tomb of a person possibly personifying Wrinkle Face. Furthermore, another portrait vessel was found in the tomb of one of the two priests buried in Platform II, the mudbrick structure associated with the sacrificial site.

It remains for the moment impossible to ascertain to which class of society these individuals immortalized in portrait heads belonged. Yet almost like badges of office, they exhibit a somewhat limited range of physical attributes and adornments that may provide us with a means of exploring their range of activities. For example, their headdresses commonly consist of a decorated head cloth occasionally maintained by a strap passing under the chin. In some cases, this head cloth is adorned with head rings incorporating animal effigies such as felines, foxes, monkeys, and birds (Donnan 2004). Donnan also mentioned that although the range of headdresses and adornments is too great to give a precise indication of role and status for the individuals depicted in the portrait tradition, the headdresses and the ear ornaments worn by these people are also frequently worn by individuals holding prisoners, Badminton players, coca takers, snail gatherers, and sea lion and bird hunters (Donnan 2004: 72).

Copulation with Wrinkle Face

A ceramic jar depicting a copulation scene between Wrinkle Face and a woman was found along with twenty-one other ceramic offerings in the burial of a woman in the urban sector alongside Huaca de la Luna (figure 1.46) (Chapdelaine 2001). Among the other ceramic offerings was a stirrup spout bottle with a ritual runner modeled on top. Another one, a spout-and-handle bottle, was decorated with a fineline painting of ritual warrior accoutrements: a conical helmet, a chinstrap, a tunic, a round shield, and a club. It may be surprising to encounter ceramic vessels depicting subjects and objects usually associated with male individuals, but caution should be exerted when associating too rapidly these elements only with the masculine gender, since women appear to take an active role in sacrificial activities. As suggested by Claude Chapdelaine, it is further tempting to infer a relationship between the woman in the burial and the one in the copulation scene (2001: 81); for the moment, however, such a suggestion remains to be corroborated by at least one other mortuary context containing a similar scene with a female individual.

Summary

Table 1.2 indicates that up to now, at least eleven different subjects of the iconography have been matched with real-life counterparts with various degree of confidence. The identifications between real individuals and subjects depicted in the iconography induce a closer relationship between the two domains than envisaged even just a few years ago. It can now be said that, when encountering intact, high-ranking Moche burials, the task will be to deduce with what subject within the iconographic schema they are associated. The focus then necessarily becomes what to make of the actions being performed by these individuals in the iconography. In many respects these activities may appear to be of a supernatural nature, such as Wrinkle Face fighting anthropomorphic crabs or individual A being carried in a litter by soldiers who are in the guise of a hummingbird and a raptorial bird. Since we contend that living people may have been portrayed in the iconography with animal or inorganic attributes and that supernatural attributes may have been ascribed to real individuals, I would argue that we have to assume that many of these scenes—as supernatural and fantastic as they may appear—may have had real-life components that could have been ritually performed as well. In general terms, mythical discourse is often referred to during ritual performance, and certain performative gestures often allude to parts of these myths.

Within the overall scholarly community there is no consensus as to what could have been part of the physical reality of the Moche and what could have been part of their mythology. Anne Marie Hocquenghem suggested that the iconography systematically depicts both mythological accounts performed by beings with supernatural attributes and their ritual counterparts performed by human beings (1989: 23). She argues that the scenes of deer hunting represent rituals performed by human beings, whereas the supernatural depictions of individuals with fangs fighting crablike beings or stingrays (figure 1.34) are the mythical counterparts for such rituals. It is an interesting proposition, but it has proven a difficult if not impossible undertaking to separate into discrete units what could be mythological and what could be ritual. It would appear that in many cases, the dynamics are far more intertwined and that both aspects—mythical and ritual—may coexist in the same representations.

Context and Methodology

One of the principal problems severely limiting the study of Moche iconography—and for that matter, the visual culture of most Ancient American societies—is context. The majority of the ceramics and artifacts are without provenience, as they came to light overwhelmingly from looting activities. In most cases, the primary context of these objects has thus been lost forever. Although Donnan and McClelland are in agreement with me that most of these objects, if not all, came from burial sites, they stated that they were not created as grave goods:

Although we can be confident that nearly all of them came from graves, they were not made for funerary purposes. They were made to be used by the Moche, and most show signs of wear—abrasion, chipping, or mended breaks—that occurred prior to their placement in graves. It is likely that only a small percentage of the total number of fineline painted vessels produced by the Moche were ultimately put in graves. Most were probably broken while in use, and their sherds simply discarded along with other trash. These sherds are sometimes found in Moche refuse deposits, usually at important centers that have associated pyramid and palace complexes. (1999: 18-19)

This statement suggests that the placement of ceramics in burials is almost incidental after their use as some sort of fancy utilitarian object:

Most of the vessels are bottles which could have been used to contain liquid. They may have been for chicha, a mildly fermented beverage that is generally made of maize. Jars, dippers, and bowls that were decorated with fineline painting also may have been used for storing and serving chichi. (Donnan and McClelland 1999: 19)

If we accept this argument, the Moche would not necessarily have made a conscious effort to select ceramics and associate them with certain people since the primary use of these objects was not funerary.

The debate about the real function of these ceramics is not new. In his closing remarks at the Dumbarton Oaks conference entitled "Death and the Afterlife in Pre-Columbian America" held in 1973, Michael Coe mentioned that

in the cult of the dead in Pre-Columbian America there is a tremendous difference between ordinary artifacts and funerary material. I have asked the Peruvian experts Clifford Evans and Gordon Willey if the Mochica pottery that we are so familiar with and think of as being typically Mochica does or does not occur in the ordinary household debris. They replied in the negative." (1975: 194)

I have to agree with Evans and Willey, as Moche fine ware has rarely been found on the floors of the vast urban sector surrounding the Huaca de la Luna, and this after more than eight years of continuous excavation. Upon analyzing 419 ceramics vessels originating from thirty-two tombs excavated in the urban sector of the Huacas de Moche site, Ricardo Tello and colleagues (2003: 175-176) concluded: "In general terms, these ceramics were completed to be deposited as offerings since none of them show evidence of domestic use. They were mass-produced through the use of molds as well as for consistent decoration. A few sculptural pieces are then distinguishable from the former by their high quality and beauty."8 The high density of fine ceramic sherds littering the surface is directly related to the intense looting of burials carried out at the site over a period of at least ninety years (1900-1992). A rejection of the primary context of these objects would also severely limit the scope of any iconographical analysis that takes into account the relations that may have existed between these objects and their funerary destination.

Since those who traffic in pre-Columbian antiquities allow for only the best pieces to reach the shelves of private and public collections, we have to assume that the one hundred thousand or so examples presently found in these collections are only a small percentage of the total number of ceramic objects initially present in these looted burials. For example, the stirrup spout bottles often making up the bulk of any collection constitute only a fraction of the ceramic paraphernalia found in burials. The less marketable ceramics would have been left behind by the looters. To date, nearly seven hundred Moche burials have been excavated by archaeologists (Millaire 2002). This number may appear impressive, but it is almost insignificant when we consider that tens of thousands of tombs must have been destroyed in the name of greed.

On the basis of the iconographical studies and contextual analyses that I have carried out so far, I suggest that even if most of these vessels were used before being buried with the dead, the funerary dimension and destination are absolutely critical to understand their use, the meaning of the iconography, and their presence in burials. I would even reverse the proposition made by Donnan and McClelland by suggesting that before the ceramics were placed with the dead, they must have been intimately related to a vast symbolic system associated with religious beliefs concerning death and the afterlife.

The perverse situation associated with looting and collecting has at least one benefit: the numerous objects consequently available for study allow for the organization of an important corpus. For this study, I have attempted to constitute the most exhaustive corpus of research. In all, more than 400 pieces depicting sexual activities have been examined, and 97 of these will be illustrated in this book. Although it is impossible to evaluate the exact number of Moche ceramics pertaining to the theme of sexual representation, I suggest that the examples used in this study are representative and should provide an adequate range of the variability that could be encountered.

The reticular organization of the scenes indicates that Moche iconography is probably a unified system in which most of the complex scenes are somewhat interrelated, with some of them occasionally represented together on a single vessel. It is thus methodologically difficult to isolate one group of scenes from the rest of the iconography. Nevertheless, the categories presented above can be used more fully to explore the concepts finely interconnected by recurring actors and diverse symbolic elements. To alleviate the problem of segregating these themes from the rest of the iconography, a number of more closely associated themes and subjects will also be investigated.

Another methodological problem lies in the choices made by the analyst. For example, is it justified to bring under a single all-encompassing subject, such as the sexual representations, all the scenes that appear to depict sexual activities or individuals with their genitals showing? Would the Moche have recognized such a selection, or is it just a mental artifact of the analyst? This question is probably impossible to answer. Is there a way to validate these analytical choices without propping up the analyses and interpretations with analogies taken from diverse cultural formations dating from later periods?

To explore the broad and still ill-defined concepts of sex, death, and afterlife, first I will initially adopt a contextual approach. This approach will operate on two distinct but interrelated levels. The first level will consist in creating a corpus by bringing together scenes depicting the same type of activities. This will provide us with comparative material so that the range of a given subject can be explored and understood. Corpuses of seemingly related activities will then be compared to determine if smaller groupings exist within the corpus, what Lévi-Strauss has called micro-pantheons (1985: 149). The second step will aim at locating these images and iconographical information within the social and ritual world of the Moche provided by the archaeology carried out so far. This will probably be the most difficult and somewhat speculative aspect of the analysis, as a fair amount of the information is missing because of the extensive looting and limited archaeological research.

The interpretation of Moche scenes often has been carried out by the use of analogies taken from written information dating from after the European contact: ethnohistorical documents, ethnographical data, myths, and stories. This lack of clear continuity and contiguity between Moche iconography and the information used in analogy makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to assess the validity of the resulting interpretations. To avoid this problem of dysjunction, I will incorporate a multidisciplinary approach in the second part of the methodology. This approach will utilize information taken from the social as well as natural sciences to understand better some of the reasons for the choices made in the iconography. For example, is there any physiological reason that may help us to explain the presence of penile erections on skeletal beings?

Before proceeding with the analysis, two broad and overarching concepts still must be discussed, as they will provide the conceptual framework for the entire undertaking. The first one is the concept of symbolic duality. The second assesses the validity, if not the existence, of a tripartite framework of Moche religion referring to Life, Death, and Ancestor. These three terms, often labeled as the "World of the Living," the "World of the Dead," and the "World of the Ancestors" have frequently been used, almost interchangeably, to describe certain scenes of the iconography.

A Dualist System

Perhaps one of the most complex enterprises in the study of the Moche religion and belief system is to define whether this society possessed any belief in an afterlife and, if in the affirmative, to see whether it is represented in the iconography. One way for exploring this issue is to begin with the concept of symbolic duality and then to proceed to the nature of the actors and the actions depicted in the iconography.

Symbolic duality is a pervasive system in Moche religion. It has been detected in ritual performances—funerary and sacrificial—in the iconography as well as in the architecture. To paraphrase Victor Turner, duality in all its forms would have been used to impose a cosmos on Moche society and its religious system (1992: 107). This dualism appears to encompass everything that is meaningful in the Moche symbolic system. It is necessary to define the important dichotomy between life and death.

Symbolic duality is one of the first basic constructs that came to light during the excavations of high-ranking burials at Sipán (Alva and Donnan 1993), especially with the intentional pairing of almost identical gold and silver objects. The golden objects were consistently placed to the right side of the main individual, whereas the objects in silver were located on his left side. Furthermore, the numerous attendants found in Tomb 1 and Tomb 2 appeared to display the same propensity to dualist principles, as they were consistently placed in an inverted position on either side of the main individual.

At Huaca de la Luna, the dualist concept seems to go much further than just funerary assemblages. It appears to encompass the whole ritual program, including the buildings, the murals, the burials and the sacrificial site. On murals, symbolic duality is expressed first between the representations on the external face of the Huaca and those inside the building. Those depicted on the north wall of the Huaca, which were public in nature as they could have been seen by the people living in the urban sector adjacent to the building, are covered with the actors of ritual warfare and animal subjects from the mountain or the terrestrial world. Depictions inside the temple, which were situated in a clearly more private setting and could only have been scrutinized by those authorized to enter the area, portray exclusively subjects from the bottom of the sea or the mouth of rivers.

The central subject on the main mural inside the edifice is probably one the most important figures of the whole iconographical program at Huaca de la Luna. This figure (figure 1.47), repeated on the four walls of a quadrangular room some 60 meters square, has been identified by a number of epithets such as degollador, or throat cutter, and more recently as the deity of the mountain (Uceda 2000). Although the face possesses a general resemblance to the so-called mountain deity, I would argue that this particular figure bears no connection with the mountain whatsoever but rather with the sea. Two bottles found in burials located on the western base of the Huaca de la Luna by Max Uhle in 1899 can help us identify the subject. On the upper part of the body of the first vessel (figure 1.48), a clear representation of an octopus-being has been rendered in low relief, with its long tentacles displayed around the central head. The suckers have been painted as white dots all along these tentacles. The face in the center is in many respects similar to the one on the mural, with the same biglobular ears; staring eyes; and large, open mouth with prominent fangs. Uhle excavated another bottle in a nearby burial; the bottle depicts Wrinkle Face with an octopus headdress, staring eyes, large fangs, and biglobular ears adorned with earrings in the shape of catfish heads (figure 1.49). The small human head decorating the central part of the headdress has a haircut associated with representations of captured warriors and sacrificial victims (figures 1.37, 1.44). A similar haircut can be seen with the octopus-being mentioned above (figure 1.48).

Surrounding the mural is a geometric design set against a dark background (figure 1.47). This motif is usually interpreted as a stylized serpent. If we compare this motif with others treated in a more natural style (figure 1.50), it becomes apparent that it is probably not a serpent but rather the stylized head of a species of catfish, locally known as Life (Trichomycterus sp.). Thus it would appear that duality is played on two different registers of the mural, with the octopus, a saltwater animal modeled against a white background, and the catfish, a freshwater animal depicted on a black background. Color symbolism also may have been associated with other dualist aspects.

Duality is further expressed in burials and the sacrificial site recently found behind the main platform. In tombs, duality is usually represented by the pairing of vases and in the sacrificial arena, by the pairing of human bodies (Bourget 2001b: 114). Tomb 2-3 of Platform II, briefly discussed above, contained the body of an old male accompanied by an adolescent boy and at least fifteen pairs of ritual vessels. A superficial look at the vases from the first example (figure 1.30) suggests that these are two identical bottles, but this is not the case. Paired bottles always present differences. In this case, the bottles have been fashioned slightly differently, and the pairs of birds, even though they are on the same position on the vase, are dissimilar. In another pair of vases (figure 1.29), the difference resides not in the decoration but in the firing: one jar has been fired, and the other one has remained unfired. All these intentional differences suggest a complex form of duality.

Among the ceramic offerings found in the same funerary context (Platform II, Tomb 2-3) was also an intriguing portrait vase (figure 1.7). It depicts the head of a man with his nose and lips excised. This form of mutilation is not rare, and numerous individuals appear like this in the iconography. They are usually depicted riding a llama, sitting in front of a building or, more rarely, performing sexual acts. I suggest that this type of facial mutilation has been created to transform the face of a living being into that of a skull, a sort of authentic living-dead.

This interplay between life and death is often created between a monkey and a human skeleton or skull. For example, the frontal view of a figure on a jar (figure 1.51) appears to represent a skeletal individual holding a panpipe. Yet upon closer inspection, the left side of the jar shows a very peculiar shoulder-blade articulation, along with the tail of a monkey (figure 1.51). Thus the jar shows a double duality occurring between life and death and between a monkey and a human. In a portrait vase, the double-play between human and animal and between life and death is expressed with a face bearing at the same time human, monkeylike, and skull-like features (figure 1.52). A similar type of tension resulting from the transition between two states may have been created with another portrait vessel showing a one-eyed person (figure 1.53). In this case, vision in one eye and blindness in the other would also express the dualist concept of life and death. This symbolism is also conveyed by individuals who cover one of their eyes with a hand (figure 1.54).

The three subjects just discussed—mutilated face, skeletal face, and one-eyed man—wear headdresses, haircuts when the hair would have been visible and tubular ear ornaments similar to those on portrait-head vessels (figures 1.7, 1.52, 1.54). There must therefore be a close relationship between those subjects and the portrait-vessel tradition. As I will demonstrate in the following chapter, each of these "transitional types" plays a role in the sexual representations: the living-dead, the monkey-skeleton, and the one-eyed person. Scenes and subjects depicting sexual activities may have also been closely related to some form of transition or phase. This proposition remains, of course, to be investigated. As a research hypothesis, it can be suggested that in Moche iconography, a transitory stage exists between life and death, which seems to have been expressed by a number of symbolic devices and dualist subjects—or transitional beings—such as the living-dead, the monkey-man, and the one-eyed person.

Can we now make a case for the existence of a world of the living, a world of the dead, and a world of the ancestors? Would the creation of these categories represent a useful tool to understand some of the structural principles of this system of representation?

A Tripartite Organization?

The existence of a tripartite system of Moche iconography and religion, entailing a world of the living, a world of the dead, and a world of mythical ancestors—the last one peopled by beings with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic attributes—has already been proposed (Arsenault 1987: 157; Benson 1975: 140; Hocquenghem 1979: 94). Hocquenghem suggested that the Moche needed to journey across these three regions in the cycle of life and death (1979: 94). Yet separating Moche iconography into three discrete and different units such as Life-Death-Ancestors presents no easy task. Complex representations such as the Presentation Theme, for example (figure 1.3), will often contain what appear to be humans acting alongside beings with supernatural attributes; similar activities can be performed by individuals that may have existed in any one of the three "worlds."

Examples occur with subjects who are carrying what we believe to be funerary offerings. The first subject depicts a human being holding a stirrup spout bottle in his right hand, a flaring bowl and dipper in his left hand, and balancing a jar on his head. He carries a small mat under his right arm and a bigger one on his back (figure 1.55). The second subject is a mutilated individual with his lips, nose, and feet missing. He holds a mat, a stirrup spout bottle, and a dipper (figure 1.56). The third one, taking the form of a skeletal being, carries two stirrup spout bottles and three jars on his back (figure 1.57). The fourth subject represents a bat-being holding two vessels (figure 1.58). The jar he holds with his right hand is tipped sideways on his shoulder. Painted on the body of the bottle is another anthropomorphized bat with eight ritual vessels standing in front of him (figure 1.59).

The gesture of emptying a jar is restricted to the bat-beings. Human and skeletal beings are portrayed only carrying the vessels. To my knowledge, bats do not carry mats in the depictions. Although it cannot be demonstrated with total confidence, it appears that these three actors can be divided into two great ensembles. The first one comprises the living, the mutilated, and the dead carrying the funerary paraphernalia: ceramic vessels and mats of different sizes. The second group, essentially represented by the bat-beings, holds only the ceramic vessels in a way that indicates they are emptying their contents. In a previous contribution, I noted a similar system with the bottles depicting human beings, skeletons and bats carrying children in their arms (2001b). The subjects of the first group—human beings and skeletons—consistently appear in the act of whistling, whereas the bats (the subjects of the second group) are usually shown with their mouth open, never whistling. On the basis of this information and other scenes associating the act of whistling with human sacrifice, I suggested that "whistling is possibly a sound produced to warn the ancestors of the human offerings to come" (Bourget 2001b: 113-114).

An attempt to create a rigid and complete separation between these three possible universes and the subjects associated with them may not be a very productive approach. As we have seen earlier, individuals possessing zoomorphic attributes or even organic components have been ascribed to living individuals at sites such as Sipán, San José de Moro, and Huaca de la Cruz. This does not mean that beliefs in a world of the ancestors or beliefs in the afterlife did not exist. On the contrary, some high-ranking individuals may have been perceived as originating from this region, thus blurring these ascribed boundaries. Donnan has also stated that a clear distinction cannot easily be established between the living and the skeletal beings and that, in some cases, the groups perform activities separately or together: "But do the death figures belong exclusively to a supernatural realm? The iconographic evidence suggests that they do not, there are many erotic scenes with death figures juxtaposed to and interacting with normal human figures" (1982: 102). For high-ranking individuals to personify living ancestors or special beings with zoomorphic attributes, there must have existed relations of continuity and contiguity between these three conceptually different regions. The three states of human being—alive, dead, or ancestral—would have been part of a certain continuum leading from life, to death, to the afterlife.

The term "world of the ancestors" poses a problem as it refers not only to a metaphysical place but also to a specific form of belief. An ancestor has been defined by Meyer Fortes as "a named, dead forebear who has living descendants of a designated genealogical class representing his continued structural relevance. In ancestor worship such an ancestor receives ritual service and tendance directed specifically to him by the proper class of his descendants" (1987: 68). If we strictly follow this definition, a "world of the ancestors" would be a place where the dead relatives of a certain genealogical class would go after their death. Although some form of ancestor worship seems to have been widespread in the Andes, both in the recent past and at the time of contact, such a specific belief cannot be confidently demonstrated for the Moche at the moment. I will thus use the imperfect term "afterlife" to designate the belief in a certain form of life after death. Furthermore, the concept of a journey toward a certain destination after death seemed to have constituted an integral part of this belief system. The term "afterworld" will designate such a place.

Perhaps one part of the difficulty of separating these aspects into discrete units may reside in the very nature of this iconography. The world of the living as we understand it does not seem to be represented as such unless it connects to the profoundly religious and ritual aspects of Moche society. Everyday activities are totally absent from the iconography, and only highly ritualized activities such as warfare, sacrifice, funerary rituals, and the like are depicted (Benson 1972: 89; Donnan 1978: 174). In certain cases through a conflating technique, complex concepts containing at the same time ritual and mythological components may have been represented together. This is not unique to Moche iconography, given that other religious imagery such as that in Christian art, for example, often utilizes this technique.

In any case, it can be said that there exists in Moche iconography four great subject types:

• The first one consists of humans and animals treated in a natural form. They are usually rendered without any additional attributes. Fully domesticated animals such as the dog, the llama, and the guinea pig are never anthropomorphized.
• The second one contains subjects that I have labeled as transitional: the mutilated face (or living-dead,) the monkey-skeleton, the one-eyed man, and the skeletal beings. They perform a fairly specific number of activities such as attending a coffin, carrying funerary offerings, playing music, and dancing. As we will see in the next chapter, they are also prominently involved in sexual activities.
• The third type is represented by animals, vegetables, and objects, all of which have anthropomorphic attributes. They are usually involved in a vast array of activities, including ritual warfare, sacrifice, ritual running, badminton game, among others. A number of animals are part of this group, including fox, feline, deer, bat, rodent, lizard, owl, duck, hummingbird, hawk, scorpion, centipede, and spider.
• Finally, the fourth type accounts for most of the individuals that possess fangs in their mouths, snake-fox belts, and other seemingly supernatural attributes. These comprise the most important subjects of the iconography such as Wrinkle Face. They are centrally involved in the most elaborate rituals such as the Presentation Theme, the Mountain Sacrificial Ceremony, and the Burial Theme. Subjects of the third type usually associate with the activities performed by the individuals with fangs, but the former usually appear in a subservient position.

The separation between the third and the fourth type is not total, since individuals with fangs often possess zoomorphic, inorganic, or vegetal attributes and, likewise, anthropomorphized animals such as the owl impersonator shown earlier (figure 1.4) may possess fangs. In the following example, both types have literally been morphed together. In frontal view, this portrait vase represents an individual with fangs, whereas the side views show the face of a bicolor fox (Lycalopex sechurae; figure 1.60). The artist has cleverly used the same eyes to join the four faces together. In this case, the bottle shows that the fangs of the supernatural being and the canines of the fox are clearly related. This is of course contrary to the generalized idea that these fangs derived solely from those of feline (Benson 1972: 28; Hocquenghem 1983: 60).

As a research hypothesis, I suggest that these four types can be regrouped into three clusters of beings: the natural beings (human and animals), the transitional beings, and the beings with supernatural attributes. When these subjects are found together in a given representation, humans are usually involved in battles or are being sacrificed under the guidance or supervision of a being with supernatural attributes. There thus exists a distinction between these subjects, with humans and transitional individuals being subordinate to beings with supernatural attributes.

The transitional beings seem to be especially associated with scenes and activities relating to funerary rituals and, to a lesser extent, to sacrificial performances. Consequently, I will use the still arbitrary categories of world of the living, world of the dead, and the afterworld, while at the same time acknowledging substantial fluidity between the three categories. In fact, the very mapping of this fluidity will form the main concern of this study.