The Moche of Ancient Peru ─ Media and Messages

In the coastal lowlands of northern Peru, the Moche archaeological culture flourished from about A.D. 100 to 800. Moche culture is well known for its vividly painted and realistically modeled ceramics, outstanding examples of which reside in a magnificent collection at Harvard's Peabody Museum. In The Moche of Ancient Peru, Peruvianist archaeologist Jeffrey Quilter presents a thorough introduction to this fascinating culture and explores current thinking about Moche politics, history, society, and religion.

Quilter utilizes the Peabody's collection as a means to investigate how the Moche used various media, particularly ceramics, to convey messages about their lives and beliefs. His presentation provides a critical examination and rethinking of many of the commonly held interpretations of Moche artifacts and their imagery. It also raises important questions about art production and its role in this and other ancient and modern cultures.

The most up-to-date monograph currently available on the Moche---and the first extensive discussion of the Peabody Museum's collection of Moche ceramics---this richly illustrated volume is informative for the general reader and contributes to ongoing scholarly discussions for the specialist. Quilter's challenge to ideas of the Moche as an expansionist theocratic state that practiced ritual warfare furthers our understanding of this ancient Peruvian phenomenon, and his fresh reading of Moche visual imagery casts new light on the traditional arts of Peru.

Jeffrey Quilter is Deputy Director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.
Luis Jaime Castillo B is Scientific Director of the San Jose de Moro Archaeological Program and Principal Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.