Anthropomorphic Figures at the Alto De La Guitarra Site, Moche Valley, Peru

2020 ◽  
pp. 289-303
Author(s):  
María Susana Barrau ◽  
Daniel Castillo Benítez
Keyword(s):  
Moche Valley

The Fisherman’s Garden

2020 ◽  
pp. 218-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Initial Period ◽  
Cultivated Plants ◽  
Mixed Economy ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Maritime Adaptations ◽  
Northern Peru

Chapter 8 draws lessons about Peruvian maritime adaptations from the early Initial Period site of Pampa Gramalote (1500–1200 cal B.C./3450–1350 cal BP) in the Moche valley in northern Peru. Fishermen at Gramalote also cultivated plants important for their fishing, such as cotton, reeds, and gourds, and some of the plants they consumed. Other plant foods were acquired through exchange with valley farmers. Thus, the inhabitants of Gramalote practiced a mixed economy that allowed them to practice symmetrical exchange with the farmers.

scholarly journals Irrigation and the Origins of the Southern Moche State on the North Coast of Peru

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian R. Billman
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Arid Environments ◽  
Irrigation Systems ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
The North ◽  
State Evaluation ◽  
North Coast Of Peru

In this paper, I examine the role that irrigation played in the formation of the Southern Moche state in the Moche Valley, Peru. Specifically, I attempt to test Wittfogel and Steward's hydraulic model, which postulates that in certain arid environments, the managerial requirements of construction and maintenance of irrigation systems played a crucial role in the formation of centralized polities. I formulate and evaluate four hypotheses concerning the role of irrigation systems in the Moche Valley. Those hypotheses are then evaluated using settlement pattern data drawn from two surveys that cover the entire coastal section of the valley and provide information on 910 archaeological sites. Based on those data, I present a sequence of political development for the valley from the formation of the first autonomous village in the Late Preceramic period (2500–1800 B. C.) to the zenith of the Southern Moche state. Evaluation of the four hypotheses indicates that the managerial requirements of irrigation were relatively unimportant; rather, warfare, highland-coastal interaction, and political control of irrigation systems created opportunities for leaders to form a highly centralized, territorially expansive state sometime between A. D. 200 and 700.

Determining Site Function: A North Peruvian Coastal Example

1977 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert R. Kautz ◽  
Richard W. Keatinge
Keyword(s):  
North Coast ◽  
Marine Resources ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
The North ◽  
Plant Cultivation ◽  
Site Function ◽  
Subsistence Activities ◽  
North Coast Of Peru ◽  
Comparative Information ◽  
Shed Light

It has long been recognized that certain macro and microanalyses of soil and midden constituents can aid archaeologists in determining the strategy and evolution of subsistence activities as well as in dealing with questions of site function and intra-site variability. Applied to the site of Medaños la Joyada (El 102) located in the Moche valley on the north coast of Peru, these techniques: (1) shed light on a subsistence strategy characterized by plant cultivation and the exploitation of marine resources found associated with the phenomena referred to as “sunken gardens” (Parsons 1968; Rowe 1969; Moseley 1969; Parsons and Psuty 1975); (2) provide comparative information for the data collected by Parsons and Psuty (1975) in their excavation of sunken garden sites located in the Chilca valley on the central coast of Peru; and (3) call into question the utility of the “small site methodology” as outlined by Moseley and Mackey (1972).

The Chimú Sculptures of Huacas Tacaynamo and El Dragon, Moche Valley, Perú

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret A. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Social Function ◽  
Temporal Sequence ◽  
Capital City ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Sacrifice ◽  
Role And Function

Abstract A corpus of wooden figures archaeologically recovered from the Huacas Tacaynamo and El Dragón (also known as Huaca Arco Iris) at Chan Chan in the Moche Valley, Perú, forms the basis for this inquiry into the role and function of Chimú wooden figure sculpture. Although the sculptures were excavated from a disturbed context, they represent an important body of evidence relating to two problematic architectural complexes. The author places this group of figures within the temporal sequence of the region and defines the specific attributes of each sculpture to clarify social function. In reconciling the architecture’s relationship to the Chimú capital city, Chan Chan, and temporally placing the sites as Early Chimú, the figures are realigned within the larger artistic traditions of Perú’s North Coast. I suggest that the sculptures were part of a coherent artistic program that was integrally linked to the religious and funerary purpose of the architecture. More specifically, these characters depict scenes of socially prescribed ritual activities, including the interment of an important person whose funeral procession was attended by various servitors, and the celebration or consecration of burial through the sacrifice of prisoners.

scholarly journals Food and the State: Bioarchaeological Investigations of Diet in the Moche Valley of Perú

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celeste Marie Gagnon
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
The North ◽  
Antemortem Tooth Loss ◽  
Political Hierarchy ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
North And South ◽  
Irrigation Agriculture

The Moche of north coastal Perú were among the earliest New World societies to develop state socio-political organization. The Moche State (AD 200-800) was a centralized hierarchical society that controlled the Moche Valley as well as valleys to the north and south. Prior to the establishment of the state, a series of less hierarchical organizations were present in the valley. Irrigation agriculture has often been cited as central to development of the Moche State. To test this assertion I examined 750 individuals recovered from the largest cemetery at the site of Cerro Oreja. Although the most important occupation of Cerro Oreja was during the Gallinazo phase (AD 1-200), many individuals were interred here during the earlier Salinar period (400 -1 BC). Consequently, the Cerro Oreja collection holds a key to understanding the development of one of the earliest and most extensive states in the Americas. The teeth and/or alveoli of each individual were examined for the presence of dental caries, periodontal disease, abscesses, and antemortem tooth loss. My analysis suggests women and children did increasingly focus their diet on agricultural products. These findings seem to support the hypothesis that increased irrigation and reliance on agricultural production was fundamental to the development of the Moche state. However, men’s diets remained consistent through time. Status seems to have been of little import in determining diet before and during early periods of state development, in dramatic contrast to what we know of its importance during the zenith of the state’s power. I suggest that increasing differentiation of gender roles was important to the development of the state, and that gender differences may have been the most salient force in the transition to political hierarchy and social stratification in the Moche valley.

The Ethnogenesis of Pescador Identity

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-264
Author(s):  
Richard C. Sutter ◽  
Gabriel Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Genetic Relationship ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
The North ◽  
Northern Peru ◽  
Dental Traits ◽  
North Coast Of Peru

Chapter 9 discusses ethnogenesis on the north coast of Peru from the perspective of bioarchaeology at the Initial Period site of Pampa Gramalote (1500–1200 cal B.C./3450–1350 cal BP) in the Moche valley in northern Peru. The authors examine the genetic relationship between fishing and contemporary, nearby populations using dental traits. They conclude that Gramalote contrasts sharply with preceding maritime populations of the Peruvian Preceramic Period and exchanged mates with farming populations in the adjacent valley. Ethnic identity here is not coterminous with genetics but rather a result of shared economic activities.

Tracking shifts in coca use in the Moche Valley: analysis of oral health indicators and dental calculus microfossils

Ñawpa Pacha ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celeste Marie Gagnon ◽  
Brian R. Billman ◽  
José Carcelén ◽  
Karl J. Reinhard
Keyword(s):  
Oral Health ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Dental Calculus ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
Oral Health Indicators

Prehistoric Principles of Labor Organization in the Moche Valley, Peru

1975 ◽  
Vol 40 (2Part1) ◽  
pp. 191-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Edward Moseley
Keyword(s):  
Construction Projects ◽  
Labor Organization ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
Repetitive Tasks ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Labor Tax

Prehistoric construction projects in the Moche Valley required the mobilization and coordination of very large numbers of individuals. It is thought that workers were mobilized by means of labor tax obligations, and large projects were subdivided into repetitive tasks executed by distinct parties of workmen drawn from separate communities.

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