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The Moche civilisation once dominated the
northern
Peruvian coastline, rising to power after the
demise
of the Pan-Andean Chavin culture. The area in
question
is extremely hot and dry: however, the Moche
(also
known as the Mochica) undertook a process of
canalisation, damming and flooding rivers in
order to
create a highly productive and localised
socioeconomic
entity. Elites and social structures appeared, as
did
a highly complex (not to mention sanguineous)
religious structure, directly linked to the
administration. Craft specialisation was an
inevitable
product of this process: pottery, metalwork and
painting all thrived, supplying the elites and
religious orders with works of unparalleled
beauty.
Indeed, it has been claimed that the quality of
these
works have never been surpassed in the
Americas, while
the quality of the ceramics is doubtless one of
the
finest in the whole of the ancient world. These
have
served as valuable social documents as well as
stunning works of art, for the scenes painted
upon
them from the mundane to the erotic, the ritual
to
the domestic are the only direct evidence we
have of
the lifestyles of these pre-literate peoples.
This piece is an admirable demonstration of the
skill
of the ceramicist and the painter. Formed in a
mould
and finished by hand, the vessel is formed into a
stirrup format that is to say, a main body with an
attached loop-and-spout handle. These had no
utilitarian function, and were manufactured
specifically for inclusion in graves. The body is
drum-shaped and rounded, with a flat base. This
is an
unusually ornate example the upper aspect of
the
vessels junction with the handle is surmounted
by the
head of a snarling feline, probably a jaguar, with
open mouth and large, rounded ears. The ground
of the
vessel is painted a creamy yellow in colour, with
the
details of the jaguar picked out in lines and
spots of
terra-cotta red. Smaller details are picked out in
dark brown. The dorsal aspect of the vessel is
painted
in checks of cream/yellow and red, with sun
motifs
decorating the former. The sides of the vessel
are
decorated with dark brown images of the
decapitator
god, a crocodilian-headed deity that regularly
appears
on the walls of the Huaca de la Luna and the
Huaca del
Brujo, wielding a decapitation axe and the head
of a
vanquished opponent. This grisly ceremony was
once
thought to be fanciful, but gained some
archaeological
substantiation in the 1990s with the discovery of
numerous mutilated, clubbed, beaten and
decapitated
young males at the apex of the Huaca de la
Luna, near
modern-day Trujillo. Many other similar cases
have
since come to light. It would appear that this was
the
fate of most captives in Moche hands: stable
isotope
evidence has determined that these unfortunate
individuals were all alien to the Moche territory,
therefore suggesting that they were invaders
from
another sociopolitical entity. The power of
spectacle
was not lost on the Moche, as judged from
numerous
ceramic scenes depicting public executions. As a
polity run by warrior elites, it is likely that the
populace viewed violence both with reverence,
and as a
fact of everyday life.
- (X.0625)
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