Moche Paperback - 1999

From the rear cover

The Moche civilization was created by the people who lived in the arid coastal regions of Northern Peru from around AD 100 to AD 700. This civilization had long been known for the great mud-brick pyramids that tower over the river valleys, for the splendor of its art and for its agricultural prowess. However, the social organization and political history that underlay these achievements remained generally obscure. At the end of the 1980s our vision of Moche society was suddenly and irrevocably altered. A series of discoveries on the North coast of Peru revealed stunning artistic and technological achievements and caused a dramatic revision of the sophistication and power of Moche society. This is the first book to describe this ancient civilization in the light of the new evidence.

In the first part of the book the author examines the integral relationship between the Moche people and their physical world, their economy, and everyday life at all levels of society. He describes the symbols of religion and myth and shows how these were vital participants in rituals, often involving human sacrifice, that served to maintain balance with the unpredictable forces of nature while at the same time reinforcing the power of the rulers.

In the second part of the book the author investigates the origins of Moche society in the first two millennia BC, the emergence of Moche society and the evolution of its cultural and political pre-eminence. The picture that emerges is of a brilliant manifestation of Andean culture within whose society diversity and tension were as evident as unity and whose development and decline were shaped by the attributes of its own peculiar history and by the region in which it flourished.

This vivid evocation of an ancient civilization is both enlivened and deepened by the author's sympathetic understanding of customs, rituals and myths which to modern eyes may seem both strange and terrible. It will be widely welcomed by scholars and students of South American archaeology and history, and by those curious to know more about a civilization that for thirteen centuries was largely forgotten.