The Moche
Peruvian coastal states produce the most realistic portraiture in the ancient Americas.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 400 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
The Moche build irrigation systems and huge adobe platforms on the arid north Peruvian coast from around 100 CE, and produce ceramics of exceptional quality — individualised portrait vessels, scenes of hunting, healing, warfare and explicit sexuality. The tomb of the Lord of Sipan, found intact in 1987, contained gold, turquoise and sacrificed attendants. Their iconography of ritual combat and sacrifice has been matched to excavated remains.