Putting the Body in its Place: The Intersection of Spatial and Corporal Ontologies at the Late Moche Site of Huaca Colorada, Peru

Summary

The Late Moche ceremonial center of Huaca Colorada (AD 650-850) was distinguished by cycles of ritualized architectural renovation that coincided with human and animal foundation sacrifices. Detailed architectonic analysis of the construction sequence of the ceremonial core in relation to the sacrificial burials incorporated into the structure itself provides interesting insights on Moche ontologies of embodiment, space, and social change. The data strongly suggest that Moche perceived architecture as an animate, changing, and metabolizing body, the life history of which paralleled the trajectory of different biological entities (human, divine, and environmental). The joint sacrifice of architectural and living beings sheds light on Moche worldview and constructions of identity in Middle Horizon Jequetepeque. Ultimately, an investigation of the maintenance, renovation, and ritual treatment of architecture at Huaca Colorada and other Moche sites offers a means to interpret Moche ideologies of life, death, and vitality.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Andean Ontologies: New Perspectives from Archaeology, Ethnohistory and Bioarchaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage