The Southern Mochica region, originally comprising the Chicama and Moche valleys, was the location for the polity described by Larco (2001), the Viru Valley Project (Willey 1953;
Strong and Evans 1952), the Chan Chan Moche Valley Project (Donnan and Mackey 1978), Donnan (1968,1978) and several other projects/researchers. Larco’s five-phase ceramic sequence describes properly the evolution of ceramic wares in this region, and the evolution of other representational systems, including mural paintings and metals (Larco 1948). The Huaca del Sol-Huaca de la Luna site of Moche has always been regarded as the capital of this region, an idea that remains unchallenged to this day. Recent work in the Huaca de la Luna (Figures 36.3, 36.4) and in the urban sector located in between the Huacas del Sol and la Luna have confirmed the site’s status not only as the largest ceremonial center in the south but also as a residential, production and civic center (Uceda 2001, 2004; Chapdelaine 2002) (Figure 36.4). The El Brujo Complex and Mocollope, two large sites located in the Chicama Valley, could have been alternative capitals for their valley (Franco et al. 2001) or could have been regional capitals dependent on the Huacas of Moche (Larco 2001).
Starting in Moche III, the Southern Mochicas embarked on a southward expansion, incorporating the Viru, Chao, Santa and Nepena valleys. The Mochicas’ aim seems to have been the control of the lower Santa, the only coastal valley that has a year-round, reliable water supply. Here, and to a lesser degree in the other three valleys, the Mochicas developed new lower valley agricultural fields based on a more efficient use of irrigation technology (Donnan 1968; Wilson 1985). Chapdelaine’s work in El Castillo de Santa and Guadalupito has confirmed that the Mochicas in Santa were almost identical to the Mochicas of Moche, at least in their material culture and in their construction technology (Claude
Figure 36.3. Iconographically complex murals at Huaca de la Luna, Moche Valley: detail of the western wall of the corner room in the last building of Huaca de la Luna, where a complex theme of the Mochica cosmos is developing. (Santiago Uceda)
Figure 36.4. Recreation of the Huaca de la Luna urban complex, Moche Valley, during its last phase of occupation. (Santiago Uceda)
Chapdelaine, personal communication, 2004). South of these valleys we find a limited Mochica presence, of a different nature, more likely to have been functioning as enclaves or commercial posts. In all these regions the Mochicas encountered local cultures of the “Viru” tradition, that were gradually incorporated to the Mochica realm, but continued with the production of their own material culture while incorporating an increasing number of the Mochica cultural elements.
Due to this expansionist process it is likely that the Southern Mochicas achieved a high degree of centralization and that a powerful state crystallized at the Huacas of Moche site. It is likely that its Lords had control of all their territory through an administration based on a settlement pattern of subsidiary valley capitals and local centers, through a tight elite control of the territory and centralization of its resources. It is evident that in this process, religion and ritual played increasing important roles, with ceremonies such as ritual combats (Bourget 2001) and sacrifice of defeated warriors (Bourget 2001; graphically illustrated in Donnan 1988: 552-553) that emphasized the extreme power of the rulers and their control over their territory.
In spite of the evidence in favor of a centralized Southern Mochica state, several incongruencies tarnish the otherwise monolithic hypothesis. Work by Bourget in Huancaco, the apparent Mochica capital of the Viru Valley, has revealed that this site, while sharing many architectural characteristics with the Huacas of Moche, has little resemblance in terms of its artifactual components (Bourget 2003). Huancaco ceramics are quite different from ceramic forms and styles present in the Huacas de Moche site, resembling more closely
The Early Moche ceramics. It is possible that an independent “Mochicoid” state—that is, a social and political organization that shared many aspects with standard Mochica culture, but reinterpreted in local terms—existed in the Viru Valley prior to the expansion of the Mochicas to this valley, or that an independent “Mochica of Viru” polity coexisted with the expansive Mochicas who controlled the valley.
The second incongruence is the origin and extension of the Moche V polity. The occupation of Huaca de la Luna, featuring Moche IV ceramics, seems to extend well into the AD 800s with no occurrences of Moche V wares on site (Uceda 2004; Chapdelaine 2003). In the meantime, Moche V wares are quite common in Galindo, dating back to AD 700, with little or no occurrences in the 800s (Lockard 2005). The distribution of Moche V ceramics appears to be restricted to the Chicama Valley, where Larco collected most of the specimens now housed in the Larco Museum; to the site of Galindo on the north bank of the Moche Valley; and to some odd contexts reported in and around the Santa Valley (Donnan 1968; Pimentel and Paredes 2003). It is our impression that the Moche V polity was restricted mainly to the Chicama Valley and that it evolved only after the fragmentation of the Southern Mochica into two polities (Castillo 2003). Further research in the Chicama Valley should prove or falsify this hypothesis.
The Northern Mochicas
The Northern Mochica region comprised three valley systems: 1) the upper Piura Valley, around the Vicus region; 2) the lower Lambayeque Valley system, comprising three rivers: La Leche, Reque and Zana; and 3) the lower Jequetepeque Valley system, that includes the Chaman and Jequetepeque drainages. The Piura Valley, as argued above, was fully part of the Mochica phenomenon only during its Early Moche, or Early Moche-Vicus phase, developing non-Mochica traditions during the Middle and Late Moche phases. In contrast to all the other regions, Mochica occupation in Piura is not located in a coastal setting with access to maritime resources and focused on lower-valley irrigation agriculture, but in a fertile enclave up-valley, thus adapted to, and exploiting a quite distinct environment.
The Piura Valley had a brief yet visible Mochica occupation centered around the region of Chulucanas, where the Vicus developed. The Mochicas and the Vicus seem to have coexisted, as most Moche ceramics were reported coming out of deep shaft tombs in conjunction with wares of the Vicus tradition (Makowski 1994). A small funerary mound at Loma Negra contained several rich burials from which looters removed a plethora of metal objects, including crowns, nose ornaments, bells, and adornments for elite garments (Jones 1992, 2001). Although no contextual information is available, it is clear that the Loma Negra burials belonged to royal individuals, analogous in status and identities to those buried at Sipan (Alva 1998 inter alia) and La Mina (Narvaez 1994).
Interpreting the Mochica presence in Piura has been a riddle for quite some time now. Lumbreras (1979) argued that the Mochicas had been a commercial colony in Piura, assuring themselves access to precious Ecuadorian resources such as Spondylus shells and gold. Makowski (1994) argues in favor of a multiethnic society, a point of encounter of several north coast traditions where the Mochicas coexisted and, apparently, shared their territory with other groups. It is also possible that the Mochicas from Piura were none other than Vicus elites engaging in the same transformation process as the Viru or Gallinazo people of Jequetepeque, thus creating an elite material culture, with an iconography and style homologous to the one in use at the royal centers of Lambayeque and Jequetepeque. In any case, from these auspicious Early Moche origins, whether a colony, a component in a
Cultural melting pot or an elite culture, the Mochicas from Piura developed into something quite different from their southern relatives. The reasons for this cultural drift are not clear, and in actuality the archaeological record has not been analyzed from this standpoint. It is likely that the Mochica elites from Piura lost or ceased contact with the southern polities, or failed to impose their cultural canons, and culturally drifted away.
The Lambayeque and Jequetepeque valleys were the venues for the development of the Northern Mochicas throughout the Early, Middle, and Late Moche phases. Due to their geographic and environmental differences, in each valley the process took on distinct characteristics. In terms of agricultural land and available water, each one of these two valley systems is equivalent to the extension of several of the Southern Mochica valleys put together (Shimada 1999). Consequently, internal or intra-valley interactions are much more influential than inter-valley relationships. There is little or no evidence that either of these valleys attempted to overcome the other, or challenge the power of the Southern Mochicas. Quite the contrary, in terms of territory, in both regions the objective seems to have been the incorporation of new territories through larger and more efficient irrigation systems. In neither case does the limit of the irrigated area seem to have been reached, thus there seems to have been no need to engage in inter-valley conflicts to extend land holdings and gain access to more primary resources (staples).
The Lambayeque Valley system was, during Middle Moche times, the seat of the Lord of Sipan (Alva 2001: 243) and possibly of other small Mochica kingdoms. During Late Moche times the capital of the Pampa Grande state was located on its southeastern side. Yet our knowledge of how the Mochicas developed in this valley is quite incomplete due to lack of field research. Almost all the known Mochica sites in Lambayeque are located on the south side of the valley, on the banks of the Chancay-Reque River (Sipan, Saltur, Pampa Grande, Santa Rosa) and the Zana River (Cerro Corbacho, Ucupe). The northern section, irrigated by the La Leche River, seems not to have been occupied by the Mochicas, but by local Viru or Gallinazo populations (Shimada and Maguina 1994). Only two sites, Sipan and Pampa Grande, have been studied intensively enough to reveal significant aspects of the organizational principles employed by the Mochicas of Lambayeque. Sipan has shown us unexpected characteristics of Mochica leadership and wealth, particularly the funerary treatment of higher status individuals in Mochica society (Alva 2001). What archaeologists see in these burials is an image of great social and political complexity, with a sizable body of higher elite consisting of rulers and high officers of different statuses who were bestowed with the right to accompany their lords after death. All were costumed in the regalia and garments that they used in life to perform their ritual roles in religious or civil liturgies. In all cases a special link was established between the individuals and the objects that defined their function and ceremonial role that, evidently, continued after death. The officers and their “objects” developed an “inalienable relation,” such that these objects, produced for them under special conditions and times, would not be appropriate for others. Thus, they died with their owners, were buried with them, and would still function with them in the afterlife to continue providing for the society of the living.
Sipan corresponds to the Middle Moche phase in the Lambayeque Valley, a time of probable expansion and growth. Saltur, the other monumental complex apparently contemporary with Sipan, has not been excavated. One possible piece of evidence is that both Sipan and Saltur were built next to the Collique canal, the inter-valley irrigation system that provides water to the lower Zana Valley, to the south. It is likely that the wealth of Sipan was connected with the expansion of the agricultural lands after incorporating the Zana Valley.
Pampa Grande, one of the largest Mochica sites anywhere, occupies more than 400 ha at the neck of the Chancay River, where the irrigation canals have their intakes. The site was laid out and built in a short period of time, and combines an enormous ceremonial complex, including Huaca Fortaleza (the tallest ceremonial platform in Peru), storage facilities, specialized workshops, shrines of different sizes and kinds, living quarters and corrals (Shimada 1994). It is unlikely that the site gradually grew to its actual proportions, but instead it seems to imply a population-reduction strategy. People from all over the Lambayeque Valley appear to have been concentrated at Pampa Grande for purposes and reasons that remain uncertain. However, this social and political experiment lasted only a short period, and by the end of the seventh century the site had been abandoned. Shimada argues that Pampa Grande, where “Gallinazoid” ceramics are quite frequent, was developed because the Mochicas forced the Gallinazos to live there and work for the Mochica state, in conditions analogous to slavery (Shimada 1994). Social tensions within the site erupted late in the occupation, when a popular revolt might have burned the temples and ousted the elites. The biggest paradox about Pampa Grande, nevertheless, is the preeminence of Moche V ceramics, with identical forms and decorations to the ceramics from the Chicama Valley and Galindo. What were the Moche V doing in Pampa Grande, and why do we have a discontinuous distribution of this style? Moche V is almost nonexistent in the Jequetepeque Valley that lies between Chicama and Pampa Grande.
The Mochica occupation of the Jequetepeque Valley system has been the subject of intensive and extensive research, making it the one of the best known regions of the north coast. Multiple valley-wide surveys have been conducted and excavations have been carried out in numerous sites. The most prominent Mochica sites excavated in the Jequetepeque Valley are Dos Cabezas, La Mina, and Pacatnamu, located close to the ocean; and Cerro Chepen, Portachuelo de Charcape, San Idelfonso and San Jose de Moro, in the interior, northern part of valley, corresponding to the Chaman River drainage. Stratigraphic excavations conducted in San Jose de Moro have produced a ceramic sequence of three phases, Early, Middle and Late Moche, constituting a tradition quite distinct from the one described by Larco. Only the most elaborate elite ceramics resemble forms and decorations found in the south, while domestic ceramics show a completely different assemblage of forms, technique and decorations. Differences between the Jequetepeque and Southern Mochica traditions are most obvious in funerary practices, where rich chamber burials with niches, middle-range boot-shaped shaft tombs, and poor and shallow pit tombs are the typical forms, in contrast to small chamber and pit burials common in the south. In spite of these differences the Mochicas from Jequetepeque shared with their southern neighbors a common religious liturgy, and participated actively in the core Mochica ceremony, the Sacrifice ceremony (Alva and Donnan 1993; Castillo 2000). Elite tombs found in San Jose de Moro featured burials of high-status females surrounded by artifacts associated with the Sacrifice ceremony, and particularly to the female role or figure in it, commonly called the Priestess (Donnan and Castillo 1994; Figure 36.5).
The political configuration of the Jequetepeque Valley describes a development process where evidence of political centralization competes with evidence for fragmentation and factionalism. A model of gradual development and decline cannot explain the evidence, which seems to better suit a model of political oscillation, where periods of fragmentation were followed by periods of more centralization to take advantage of opportunities or circumstances brought about by the environment or by inter-polity interactions. In the Early Moche phase a small and centralized state centered in Dos Cabezas developed on the margins of the Jequetepeque River. By Middle Moche times population pressure should
Figure 36.5. M'U41, one of the Priestess burials excavated in San Jose de Moro, Jequetepeque Valley. (Luis Jaime Castillo)
Have forced the Mochicas to expand their territory into the adjacent northern and southern deserts. The southern sector, which is now the San Jose and San Pedro districts, was developed though a single and centralized irrigation system. The northern sector, the Chaman drainage, was irrigated by a set of four irrigation canals that in effect create four independent jurisdictions: Chanfan, Guadalupe, Chepen, and Talambo. It is likely that the expansion of the irrigation system created autonomous regions that eventually became independent polities. These polities seem to have engaged in factional competition and developed hostile relationships that required self-defense, and thus the construction of defensive sites such
As Cero Chepen, San Idelfonso, and Ciudadela-Cerro Pampa de Faclo. There are few signs that political integration was the norm among these northern Jequetepeque polities. Greater and lesser integration seems to have transpired at certain moments, taking advantage of opportunities or confronting needs and threats. Signs of interaction can be found in San Jose de Moro, where all these polities seem to have participated in regional ceremonial activities, and buried their elites. It needs to be stressed that in the northern Jequetepeque the process of political fragmentation seems not be an effect of a weakened state, unable to prevent its regions from gaining autonomy, but a foundational effect. Key to understanding the process of political configuration in Jequetepeque is the way the irrigation system was created, with autonomous and redundant components. Colonization of the northern Jequetepeque region seems to have been the result of an entrepreneurial faction and not a state-sponsored endeavor (Castillo ms.).
World History
