Moche

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Moche
http//www.tribalarts.com/feature/peru/index.html
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• The Moche culture lived along the Northern
  Peruvian coastline. Between 200BC and 700AD.
• Environment was rich with clay and metals.
• No written records were kept, also their was no
  major written language.

http//moche.nau.edu/projectsites.htm
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Moche Society

• Moche society was strongly controlled by
  hierarchy of priests and warriors.
• Their society was made up of Warrior-Priest
  rulers, weavers, metal smiths, potters, farmers,
  and fisherman.
• Mostly an agriculture civilization that relied on
  a highly developed network of canals to grow a
  variety of crops, such as corn, beans, peppers,
  peanuts and other kinds of crops.
• From some of the scenes that are painted on the
  pottery Archaeologists have been able to tell
  that the Moche society was very class conscious.

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moche
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Moche Art Style

• Their art mostly represented ceremonies,
  mythology, and daily life of the Moche people.
• Everything from sexual acts, ill humans,
  warriors, and deities.
• Types of medium they use were clay, copper,
  silver, and gold.
• Moche artists created extraordinary gold work,
  textiles, ceramics, and massive architecture
  pieces.

http//moche.nau.edu/index.htm
http//www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/latinameric
a/south/cultures/moche.html
http//www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/6426/10mo
che.html
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Moche Ceramics

• Their ceramics were highly structured and had
  identical form.
• Used many different techniques in building their
  ceramic pieces.
• Most of the Moche ceramics pieces were decorated
  with complex painting pattern know as fineline
  paintings.
• Certain kinds of pottery were limited by social
  class and status.
• Some pottery had specific ceremonial functions
  based social statues.
• Priest and warriors were to most frequently shown
  in ceramics.

http//www.tribalarts.com/feature/moche/index.html
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Stir-up Vessel

• They have a closed body shape mounted by an
  arched tube that pierce it in two points, and
  itself pierced by a vertical spout.
• Molded into three-dimensional sculptural forms.
• Vessels would represent animals, human, mystical
  figures, portraits of important people, and a
  variety of other designs showing daily life.
• Mostly found in Moche burials they were used also
  for functional purposes.

http//www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0103/feature
3/index.html
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Metal Work

• Many metal work techniques, such as gilding and
  early type of soldering.
• Moche used turquoises inlay techniques and wax
  casting.
• These techniques help the Moche in making
  chisels, spears points, fish hooks, digging
  sticks, tweezers and many other types of metal
  goods.
• Other types of more decorative pieces they made
  from metal goods were ear studs, necklaces, nose
  rings, masks, and helmets.

http//www.tribalarts.com/feature/peru/index.html
http//www.peru-travel.net/peru_travel_center/art.
htm
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Architecture

• The Moche culture built large flat-topped
  pyramids.
• Made from many pieces of adobe mud brick.
• Used for rituals, palaces, and royal burials.
• Huaca de la Luna and Huaca de la Sol.
• They contain collections of large painted murals
  and friezes, also were used for tombs of Moche
  leaders.

http//www.archaeology.org/0203/abstracts/moche.ht
ml
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Moche Religion

• The Moche culture worshiped this figure known as
  the Decapitator.
• Mostly illustrate as a spider or octopus like
  figure, but also represented as a winded creature
  or a sea monster.
• Shown with bulged-eyes and sharp-teeth. Painted
  in bright yellow, red, white, and black.
• This deity was mostly used or shown when the
  Moche culture had rituals of human sacrifice.

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moche
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Theories about the end of the Moche culture

• Climatic disaster between 550 to 600CE, thought
  that coastal areas were hit by 30 years of floods
  and rain.
• After another 30 year or more of drought.
• Many human sacrifices.
• Moche villages and clans groups turned on each
  other in a battle for limited resources of food
  and land.

http//www.tribalarts.com/feature/moche/index.html
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Source Page

• http//www.tribalarts.com/feature/moche/index.html
  
• http//moche.nau.edu/index.htm
• http//www.museum.upenn.edu/moche/mocheculture.htm
  l
• http//www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/latinameric
  a/south/cultures/moche.html
• http//www.peru-travel.net/peru_travel_center/art.
  htm