Question

What kinds of information about the Moche can we get from their pottery? Briefly describe some of the scenes on the pottery and explain what they tell us about the political, social, and religious customs of the Moche. Also briefly describe where these kinds of artifacts were found.

Answer 1

The Moche was a mysterious civilisation.who flourished along the northern coast of Peru. Due to the lack of written evidence not much was knwon about this civilization until the 1980s. Later tombs, monumennts containing an explicit and eloborative mural art work was uncovered which threw light on their rituals, customs, culture, life events and above all explicit sexual encounters.

The Moche art style is representational and abstract in nature which was easily seen on their uncovered ceramics which mostly represented, war, sex, weaving..More than 100,000 vessels were found out of which atleast 500 of them displayed exaggerated sexual images.They even had sex-themed vessels which were used as a spout or used to store liquids. Commonly displayed features in these vessels were copules having sex, while female is breast feeding the infant. It can be assumed from their art work that vaginal sex was not existent while it was anal sex that was commonly practised. Most of the vessels were found in Huaca De La Luna and Huaca del Sol and Sipan. Huaca De La Luna is a large adobe brick structure in Northern Peru.It is also known as the temple of moon.Huaca del Sol is the temple of sun. They are more than 700 years old.They are situated on the south bank of the Rio Moche about 10kms southeast of Trujillo. Their artwork showed their relationship between the animals, nature, their customs, rituals.