The Populace of Northwest Peruvian Coastal Sites

Moche (mow-chee) “An imported package of spun silk,” also known as the Mochica, were situated in the Valley of Moche, or Valley of Santa Catalina, which is a large area of the La Libertad Region in northern Peru surrounding the Moche River. It has been farmed since the pre-Columbian era and currently contains rural and urban settlements along the northern cost and valleys of ancient Peru.

Trujillo is the most important city of the valley, and has its beginning in BC times, being the home of the Cupisnique, the Moche and Chimu cultures. The Moche were known for their ceramics that were made from molds, leaving behind many duplicate pieces, showing the appearance of the Moche people.

Portrait Vessels with realistic faces of the Moche people

 

Moche portrait vessels are ceramic vessels featuring highly individualized and naturalistic representations of human faces that are unique to the Moche culture of Peru. These portrait vessels are some of the few realistic portrayals of humans found in the Pre-Columbian Americas.

The Moche were known for their gold work and monumental constructions (huacas). Their culture was sophisticated; and their artifacts fully express their lives, including scenes of hunting, fishing, fighting, sacrifice, and elaborate ceremonies.

In addition, they had knowledge about hydraulic engineering, They were the best ceramist in the entire territory, represented figures like priest, warriors, and animals, made also what the Archaeologist called Huaco retratos, ceramic made with such a realistic style that seeing the Moche molds gives an in-depth viewing of the people of that period.

The Moche Empire ran along the Chicama River valley and was a civilization that rivaled the Incas, the Mayans and the Aztecs as one of the most sophisticated cultures in the New World. They occupied over 250 miles of desert coast line and up to 50 miles inland. The desert here is utterly barren with rocky brown hills that line the horizon, and huge, pale dunes move about, with swirling patterns of sand hovering in the air. As one moved south and into Peru, the coastal geography begins to make sudden changes. Cresting ridges one drops down into  blindingly green river valleys, studded with villages and sown with lush, irrigated fields of sugarcane, cotton and alfalfa. Then, just over another ridge, one drops back down into a lifeless desert.

The rivers that flow down from the Andes to the coast, as well as the excavated archaeological sites

 

Though this Peruvian coast receives little annual moisture beyond a dirty winter fog, more than 40 rivers roar out of the Andean highlands with enough force to cross the desert and reach the sea. Each of these river valleys creates its own riparian oasis, and thanks to the rich highland silt contained in the waters agriculture thrives here and anciently supported towns and cities all along the Peruvian coast. Unlike most rainless areas of the world, today the Peruvian desert is home to a large population, including four of the nation's five largest cities.

This area is a series of long stretches of the Peruvian coast south of the Sechura Desert, and is a narrow, nameless strip that separates the Andes and the Pacific for more than 1,500 miles before merging with Chile's Atacama Desert in the south beyond Lake Titicaca.

The Moche being agriculture-based had a working knowledge of hydraulic engineering, taking advantage of the rivers for the diversion of water to supply their crops for the irrigation of their lands. In fact, they invested heavily in the construction of a network of irrigation canals for this river water to supply the crops. The rivers flowed from the Andes toward the coast, providing the normal hot and dry area with moisture, and exceptional plant and crop growth because of this irrigation.

In addition, gold backflaps were an important part of the royal costumes of the Moche elite and were worn suspended from the waist, covering the backside. Backflaps have been found by archaeologists in the tombs of several Warrior-Priests, who wore them as armor during hand-to-hand combat and as a symbol of power during rituals.

Geography shaped the development of the Moche civilization, in part because they were on a thin strip of land between the coast and the Andes mountains which was a desert causing them to create lengthy and frequent irrigation channels to water their crops in order to feed themselves. It should also be noted that they never expanded very far, keeping to the coastal desert.

Another reason is that the tall mountains helped secure the Moche along the coastal plain, serving as a natural form of defense. They protected the Moche from invading armies, who could not move quickly or efficiently across narrow mountain passes. On the other hand, the demise of the Moche are unknown, but expert believe the civilization may have succumbed to earthquakes.

This area is one of Peru's richest archaeological regions, from the Moche Valley to the Túcume Valley, north of Chiclayo, these cultures dominated the area with their power and wealth.

One of the 50 identified pyramids uncovered in the Batán Grande area

 

Twenty-five miles north of Chiclayo in a dry, equatorial forest full of mesquite, is located Batán Grande, which has monumental adobe pyramids that rise majestically over farmlands. The site occupies an area of some 35 square miles in the small coastal valley of La Leche in North Peru, is known as a mecca of grave looting that has yielded a considerable quantity of gold funerary artifacts. These destructive clandestine operations have not only prevented serious fieldwork but also effectively obscured the complexity and significance of archaeological remains that include nearly 50 extensive cemeteries and massive adobe constructions that together span some 2,500 years.

Home of the Lambayeque Culture, a division of the Sican, Batán Grande was ostentatiously rich and luxuriously lavish, producing gold and silver artifacts by the thousands and packing them into the tombs of their rulers. As the center and dominant part of this civilization, its pyramids towered ninety feet over broad plazas in which the elite gathered for feasts and ceremonies. They were buried here with gold and silver treasures, such as precious metals and ceramic artefacts of great artistic merit, such as ceremonial knifes and golden funeral masks, along with the human remains, which were buried with their retinues of attendants in a network of tombs beneath the pyramids.

Discoveries over the last 20 years have revealed incredible treasures, such as the Lord of Sipan's tomb and Batán Grande, that confirm the historical importance and development of these ancient people. Often described as South America's Egypt, this region was the cradle of the Moche, Sicán, and Chimú kingdoms, highly sophisticated pre-Columbian civilizations that flourished in the heart of one of the world's most desolate and arid strips of land.

Besides the Lord of Sipán's Tomb, the area is home to many spectacular structures, including Túcume or the Valley of the Pyramids, Huaca del sol de la Luna (Temples of the Sun and the Moon), and Chan Chan, the world's largest adobe city and the biggest adobe city in the world.