World Prehistory: Class 20

ã Copyright Bruce Owen 2000

• Early Intermediate Period 200 BC-500 AD
• emergence of complex chiefdoms and states with obvious very high status elites in several distinct regions, with different traditions
• Moche, probably the largest and most complex, which we will focus on here
• Nazca, on the coast to the south
• Chiripa and Pucara, leading towards the Tiwanaku state on Lake Titicaca
• some, like the Moche, arose in areas that had experienced Chavín influence
• others, like Nazca and, especially, the Lake Titicaca area, were not affected by Chavín at all
• development of highly elaborated ceramics, metalwork, and other crafts in many wildly different styles
• which is why a few archaeologists once called this the "Master craftsmen" period, although the term never stuck
• generally quite different from the Early Horizon styles that preceded them
• rise of sizable residential towns (formerly few)
• rise of fortified settlements (as opposed to fortresses without permanent occupation)
• these were clearly intended for real defense
• earliest at the valley necks, where the earliest canals were built
• suggests that raids might have been over control of water and canal flows
• as is expected in growing agricultural societies
• but many people still lived in indefensible, small hamlets, too
• tensions may have been triggered by the filling up of easily irrigated farmland, and the increase in competition and need for organization of larger reclamation works (canals)
• by 100 BC, Gallinazo culture in the Moche valley (to about 500 AD)
• Gallinazo style mounds and pottery found all the way up to the Ecuadorian border
• direct predecessors of the Moche culture
• marked population growth (reached all-time highs in Virú and Santa valleys)
• large areas irrigated in the fans along the valley mouths
• using canals starting at the valley necks
• settlements became less defensible over time, suggesting regional unification
• 4-level settlement hierarchy developed
• prior to the Gallinazo culture, sites had all been relatively uniform-sized, modest villages
• presumably similar activities carried out at each
• and presumably roughly equal in power
• in Gallinazo times, there were sites in a range of sizes
• many small, rural settlements, as before, plus:
• some larger towns ("tertiary" or 3rd-level)
• a few towns that were larger yet ("secondary centers")
• one huge main site in each valley (several square km, although population estimates are still only in the "several thousands")
• suggests a single, valley-wide organization in each valley
• based at the largest site in each valley
• drastic variations in housing, from cane-walled shanties to solid adobe
• suggesting significant differences in social status and material standards of living
• monumental platforms built on the slopes of and on top of natural hills
• mold-made adobe bricks
• surrounded by settlements of up to 3000 people
• Moche, starting around 1 AD, lasting to around 600 AD
• Moche may have been not so much a new "culture", but a new ideology and corresponding art style developed by elites of certain Gallinazo groups
• that is, a form of propaganda or supernatural justification for their position and demands on the society
• because the main difference is just in the style of decorated ceramics; the rest of life does not seem to have changed much
• Cerro Blanco
• the most important Moche site
• Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna
• separated by a large space filled with courts, residences, workshops, and cemeteries
• still over a square mile in area, originally more before Spanish destroyed an unknown fraction to mine the Huaca del Sol
• Huaca del Sol
• originally the largest structure of solid adobes ever built in the New World
• and among the three biggest mounds of any type in the New World
• only a part remains, because in 1602 the Moche river was diverted to hydraulic mine it
• the scant records indicate that they found royal burials with lots of gold, which they melted down
• recent work also finds high-status burials with decorated ceramics and occasional small amounts of gold and copper
• 380 m long, 160 m wide, 40 m high (1,235 feet x 520 feet x 130 feet) (about 1/4 mile long)
• estimated over 143 million adobe bricks
• had complexes of rooms on top
• including courts, corridors, rooms that accumulated refuse, suggesting secular use by lots of people
• built of wooden poles, probably thatched roofs
• some were small, elevated, and contained a "throne"
• rebuilt and enlarged over most of the span of Moche culture
• Huaca de la Luna
• Numerous painted relief murals
• Unlike Huaca del Sol, kept clean
• suggesting that it had a different function
• Huaca del Sol is thought to have been more administrative, with politics and business conducted there
• Huaca de la Luna is thought to have been a more ritual or religious structure
• Contained (at least) two high-status burials
• with the same kind of copper cups that are shown with "sacrificer" figures on pots
• that is, real burials that contain the exact paraphernalia that is shown in what might seem to be mythological scenes on the ceramics
• an even richer one was apparently looted in nineteenth century, with numerous gilt copper masks, etc.
• And an area with layers of 35-40 sacrificed bodies
• neck cutting trauma, random positions, left in open air and rain
• possibly the result of rituals shown on pottery and performed by the people in the high-status burials
• between the two huacas, a large (500 m wide) space full of perishable residences and craft shops
• this was totally covered by sand; once thought to have been an empty courtyard, as in Initial period sites
• but excavation has shown that the concept of this center was completely different from the Initial period ones
• the residences are said to be of three levels of quality
• with the highest status people living near the ritual monument of the Huaca de la Luna
• and the lowest status ones living near the secular administrative center of the Huaca del Sol
• evidence of craft work
• beads, raw material (lapis), and stone drills
• ceramics, metalwork, maybe shell work
• evidence of long-distance trade for craft materials
• Spondylus shell from Ecuador
• lapis from northern Chile (if correctly identified)
• Numerous other Moche sites also have big adobe platform mounds, often with painted relief murals
• Moche art
• sophisticated but highly standardized style
• clearly implies manufacture by specialists
• who must have had extensive esoteric knowledge of the iconography, not to mention the technology and art of ceramic production
• much as the designers of stained glass windows had to know a tremendous amount of church arcania
• mold-made ceramics
• sculptural vessels
• many are realistic human heads, so individualized that they are taken to represent specific people
• actually, a limited number of people, shown at different ages
• fine-line painting on simpler shapes
• often showing standard scenes, or parts of them, that apparently were rituals carried out by costumed specialists
• Drastic variation in burial richness indicates extreme status differences
• Ordinary burials with nothing or a few pots
• Medium-status Moche burials
• extended body in a cane casket
• a few pots, sometimes some other goods
• High-status burials
• such as the "Warrior Priest"
• extended body in a cane casket
• surrounded by lots of pots and other goods
• Extremely rich burials at numerous Moche sites
• Some in platform mounds (although this does not seem to have been the principal use of the mounds)
• Some in deep, underground tombs without any surface structures
• Sipán "royal" burials
• several separate burials
• in a mud-brick platform mound
• lots of copper, silver, gold, ceramics, beadwork, human and animal sacrifices
• specific burials correspond to specific figures depicted on Moche pots, based on unique ornaments and paraphernalia
• thought to be specific ritual roles in ceremonies, occupied by a series of people like political offices
• at Sipán, there are two burials of people who played the central figure's role
• suggesting that this role was an office that was filled by a succession of people
• Other sites with similar burials
• Señor de Sicán, similar
• at San José de Moro, one was a high-status woman, also clearly linked to a specific character on Moche pots
• implications:
• the scenes on Moche pots really happened, or if mythical, were reenacted in reality by the people in these tombs
• these people presumably comprised a powerful ruling class, based on or supported by their religious roles
• they must have commanded huge resources of skilled labor and food production to produce the things in their tombs and elsewhere
• large-scale specialized production inferred, and some found at various administrative/ceremonial sites
• pottery factories with molds, kilns, etc.
• deep, extensive piles of reject fragments, molds, ash, etc.
• copper processing and fabrication shops
• special hearths for smelting ore into copper
• special grinding stones for breaking up slag and extracting the droplets of copper
• metalworking shops with polished stone tools for hammering sheet metal, raising designs, etc.
• must have been similar gold and silver shops, although they have not been found yet
• weaving centers shown on ceramics, maybe found at Pampa Grande
• BIG canal systems
• large, planned field complexes, some with regularly-spaced mounds thought to have been for administrative purposes
• more total area was irrigated in Moche III and IV than ever again until this century (and some Moche field areas still have not been reclaimed)
• i.e. production organized by, and for use of, the state/elites
• but note: the big field complexes appeared no earlier than 300 AD (Moche III), well after both Gallinazo and Moche were established
• agricultural works may have contributed to increasing complexity, but not to its beginning
• Warfare
• walls enclose some ceremonial and high-status residential districts
• this could be for actual defense
• or to restrict access for ritual reasons
• iconography
• on pots and big murals
• maces, shields, battle scenes, bound prisoners being shown to an enthroned figure, sacrifices
• but some suggest that the hand-to-hand battle of overdressed warriors may be ritual, not literally warfare in our sense
• weapons in burials
• spear throwers, spear heads, maces, decorative armor, etc.
• again, mostly highly decorated, maybe more for imagery than heavy use
• but defensible sites went out of use
• ineffective against a standing army?
• maybe the Moche state forced people abandon them, as the Inka did later?
• The Moche society centered at Cerro Blanco apparently became increasing secular and militaristic
• eventually probably conquering a large part of the north coast
• there may have been several competing, large Moche states, or maybe they were eventually unified
• but the whole society was drastically altered from around 560 to 600 AD
• several decades of drought, combined with disastrous El Niño rains
• lots of farmland, canals, and some sites were destroyed by floods
• drought would have greatly reduced food supply
• and a natural process led to sand dunes burying the capital of Cerro Blanco!
• an apparent "replacement" capital at Pampa Grande featured significantly different architecture and iconography
• and was burned and abandoned around 700 AD
• By this time, two complex societies were well established in the highlands to the south, Wari and Tiwanaku
• The north coastal tradition continued with the later Chimu culture...
• which was eventually conquered by the Inka...
• but we have run out of time to go into all this!