Subject: elite warrior
Culture: Moche
Setting: Peru 2nd-6thc
Evolution:
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Stone-Miller 2002 p82
"Moche is the name given to the site, river valley, culture, style, and state that dominated the North Coast for the first 600 years AD. Arguably the first true state in the Andes, at its height it covered from the Piura Valley in the far north to the Huarmey Valley in the south. Two related languages were spoken, Muchic from Lambayeque northward and Quingan from there southward, helping to delineate two major spheres within this culture. The southern sphere had the site of Moche as its capital and mounted and expansive conquest campaign around the fourth century, probably to gain precious farmland. Sudden appearances of characteristic monumental adobe mounds and defensive structures attest to this imposition over local peoples. Images of warfare, prisoner sacrifice and portraits of important individuals all signal a time of strong political leaders. Some scholars see the battle imagery in Moche murals and ceramics as more ceremonial than real (pitting Moche against Moche). In Luna at Moche and at Sipán. Yet somehow the southern sphere seems to have briefly dominated the northern one, then later the north seems to have had more power, and finally both collapsed around the time that the Wari were beginning their state. Throughout this trajectory the northern sphere was more self-contained (and this cohesion was carried forward by the subsequent Lambayeque culture). Its capital was Pampa Grande, which eclipsed Moche during the later northern fluorescence."
Jewelry
*
Weapons
* Nickel 1969 p66
"In Peru the early civilization of the Mochica (300 B.C.-700 A.D.) produced many figure vessels. On them we find warriors splendidly attired in thickly quilted cotton jackets, padded helmets, and stout shields. Each is armed with a club and a pair of javelins. The war club had a stone head and on its other end a wicked spike of copper, to be used like rifle butt and bayonet; the javelins were hurled with a special device, a spear thrower, that gave additional leverage to the warrior's arm. Apparently there were two groups or clans of warriors, identified by animal badges, the Foxes and the Hawks."
Cf.
* Alva Y Donnan 1994
* Berrin ed. 1997
* McEwan ed. 2000
* McEwan 2002
* Perú Indígena y Virreinal 2004
* Symboles Sacrés 2002
