removing the dark top layer of stones to expose the light clay and
calcite below. The Nasca created the lines quite easily from available
materials and using rudimentary geometry. Small groups of workers
have made modern reproductions of them with relative ease. The
lines seem to be paths laid out using simple stone-and-string meth-
ods. Some lead in traceable directions across the deserts of the Nasca
River drainage. Others are punctuated by many shrinelike nodes,
like the knots on a cord. Some lines converge at central places usually
situated close to water sources and seem to be associated with water
supply and irrigation. They may have marked pilgrimage routes for
those who journeyed to local or regional shrines on foot. Altogether,
the vast arrangement of the Nasca Lines is a system—not a mean-
ingless maze but a map that plotted the whole terrain of Nasca ma-
terial and spiritual concerns. Remarkably, until quite recently, the
peoples of highland Bolivia made and used similar ritual pathways
in association with shrines, demonstrating the tenacity of the An-
dean indigenous belief systems.
MOCHE Among the most famous art objects the ancient Peru-
vians produced are the painted clay vessels of the Moche, who occu-
pied a series of river valleys on the northern coast of Peru around the
same time the Nasca flourished to the south. Among ancient civiliza-
tions, only the Greeks and the Maya surpassed the Moche in the in-
formation recorded on their ceramics. Moche pots illustrate architec-
ture, metallurgy, weaving, the brewing of chicha (fermented maize
beer), human deformities and diseases, and even sexual acts. Moche14-23Vessel in the shape of a portrait head, Moche, from the northern
coast of Peru, fifth to sixth century CE. Painted clay, 1–^12 high. Museo
Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera, Lima.
The Moche culture produced an extraordinary variety of painted vessels.
This one in the shape of a head may depict a warrior, ruler, or royal
retainer. The realistic rendering of the face is particularly striking.14-24Ear ornament, Moche, from a tomb at Sipán, Peru, ca. 300 CE.
Gold and turquoise, 4–^45 . Bruning Archaeological Museum, Lambayeque.
This ear ornament from a Sipán tomb depicts a Moche warrior priest
and two retainers. The priest carries a war club and shield and wears a
necklace of owl-head beads. The costume corresponds to actual finds.384 Chapter 14 NATIVE ARTS OF THE AMERICAS BEFORE 1300vessels are predominantly flat-bottomed, stirrup-spouted jars de-
rived from Chavín prototypes. The potters generally decorated them
with a bichrome(two-color) slip. Although the Moche made early
vessels by hand without the aid of a potter’s wheel, they fashioned
later ones in two-piece molds. Thus, numerous near-duplicates sur-
vive. Moche ceramists continued to refine the stirrup spout, making
it an elegant slender tube, much narrower than the Chavín examples.
The portrait vessel illustrated here (FIG. 14-23) is an elaborate ex-
ample of a common Moche type. It may depict the face of a warrior,
a ruler, or even a royal retainer whose image may have been buried
with many other pots to accompany his dead master. The realistic
rendering of the physiognomy is particularly striking.
SIPÁNElite men, along with retinues of sacrificial victims, appear
to be the occupants of several rich Moche tombs excavated near the vil-
lage of Sipán on the arid northwest coast of Peru. The Sipán burial sites
have yielded a treasure of golden artifacts and more than a thousand
ceramic vessels. The discovery of the tombs in the late 1980s created a
great stir in the archaeological world, contributing significantly to the
knowledge of Moche culture. Beneath a large adobe platform adjacent
to two high but greatly eroded pyramids, excavators found several lav-
ish graves, including the tomb of a man known today as the Lord of
Sipán, or the Warrior Priest. The splendor of the funeral trappings that
adorned his body, the quantity and quality of the sumptuous acces-
sories, and the bodies of the retainers buried with him indicate that he
was a personage of the highest rank. Indeed, he may have been one of
the warrior priests so often depicted on Moche ceramic wares and mu-
rals (and in this tomb on a golden pyramid-shaped rattle) assaulting
his enemies and participating in sacrificial ceremonies.
An ear ornament (FIG. 14-24) of turquoise and gold found in
one Sipán tomb shows a warrior priest clad much like the Lord of
Sipán. Two retainers appear in profile to the left and right of the cen-
tral figure. Represented frontally, he carries a war club and shield and1 in. 1 in.