The MocheLooking out over the barren shifting sand dunes of Peru's north coast, it is difficult to imagine a civilization ever surviving in this harsh dry landscape. However, this land was home to theMoche from first through the eighth centuries AD. The Moche were a highly stratified people made up of rulers, warriors, craftsmen, and farmers. Although they had no form of writing, a great deal about the Moche has been learned through studying their art and architecture. The Moche civilization was one of the largest in Pre-Columbian America and its people were presumably ruled by a god-king who gained and kept power through human sacrifice. In the end, however, sacrifice wasn't enough to hold back a series of natural disasters that led to the downfall and eventual collapse of the powerful Moche empire.
These
numerous natural disasters set the ball rolling for the eventual disappearanceof
Moche civilization. After the constant environmental changes, faith inthe
Moche deities was presumably lost and the stratified social structuremost
certainly crumbled. Evidence from the changing pottery style duringthis
period points to foreign influence taking hold. Eventually, the Chimubegan
to dominate the area and the accomplishments of the Moche were forgottenuntil
the present day. Much of what we could have learned from the Mochewas lost
during the Spanish Conquest. Spanish conquistadors looted and pillagedthe
settlements of pre-Columbian America. One such monument, the Huaca delSol--the
largest adobe structure in the Americas, was looted and nearlydestroyed
by Spanish treasure hunters. They accomplished this by divertinga nearby
river to erode the walls of the Huaca to gain access to the goldwithin.
Over 1/2 of the Huaca del Sol was washed away along with most oftheir history.
This website was created by Tom Raine, Zach Speridon,and Adrian Gastellum.