A Study of Fineline Iconographic Depictions at the Late Moche site of Huaca Colorada, in the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru

Summary

The Late Moche Period (AD 500-800) of the North Coast of Peru is marked by significant alterations to the iconography of elite fineline ceramics. In particular, the earlier imagery, depicting conventionalized narratives of ritual performances and exploits of male Moche divinites or their mortal avatars disappears in certain locales. In southern valleys, at sites such as Galindo, Late Moche elite ceramics largely depicted abstract geometrical imagery including the widespread step-and-mountain motif that overlapped chronologically with the earlier Moche IV style at Huacas de Moche. Scholars have argued this abandonment of established iconographic themes and re-invigoration of Pan-Andean abstract motifs signifies a rejection of a discredited ideology in specific sites and zones of the North Coast. However, prominent sites in the Jequetepeque Valley, including Huaca Colorada and San Jose de Moro, witnessed a continuation of narrative depictions alongside the abstract imagery so prominent in the south and at Pampa Grande to the north. In this study, I explore the social and political significance of the coexistence of these two styles at Huaca Colorada, to question whether they index disparate ideologies to argue the southern Jequetepeque was a place of less stringent political centralization,where ideas, people, and things, were more freely exchanged.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage