About This Page

This page is an in-progress catalog of Moche sites. The sites are organized more or less alphabetically within a classification system.  First, the sites are grouped by valley, and the valleys are arranged alphabetically.  After the name of the valley will appear a brief overview of the sites within that valley.  Then will follow an alphabetically sequenced list of the habitation and burial sites within the valley.  After that, any specific structures (e.g. the Huaca del Sol) will be discussed, also in an alphabetical list.  Most web-browsers have a search function; in lieu of a site-searching script on my end, this is the best option if you're looking for information on a specific site but do not know in which valley it is located.  It is hoped that in the very near future navigation via map will be possible.

Casma River Valley

The Casma Valley is not one of the more famous places of Moche occupation, but it is home to one of the most famous of all the Moche sites, Panamarca.

• Panamarca is generally considered to be one of the Moche's greatest pyramids. This 80 foot high, six level structure has been compared favorably to the ziggurats of ancient Sumer. Its courtyards are walled off, and it has six entry ramps or stairs. The huaca is covered with the best-preserved and largest polychrome murals which have been found and identified as Moche.

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Chicama River Valley

The Chicama valley was one of the three most important during the formative years of the Moche.  Therefore, there are many sites within the valley, but most of them are extremely early and perhaps not as glamorous as those in other valleys where sites are filled with excite Phase IV pottery.  The valley's inhabitants were protected by a fortress called Facal, and they made use of a number of structures, including the Huaca del Brujo and Huaca Prieto.

• Facal is a fortress which is situated perfectly on a hill to afford its occupants a vantage point from which they could keep a a watchful eye on the entire valley. It is also situated well for the protection of a nearby canal, whose water was probably one of the most important things in the lives of the people in this oasis valley in the middle of the Peruvian desert.

• Huaca del Brujo ("Pyramid of the Witch"), also known as simply El Brujo or Cao Viejo, near the mouth of the Chicama River, has not been excavated much until recent times and I have not had a chance to read the data which has been published in the last few years on the site.  While the site does certainly contain some of the most impressive murals of anywhere within Moche provenience, it is important to note that the mound is not actually of Moche construction, but is, in fact, generally labeled as preceramic.  It is thought, however, to have been "taken over" by the Moche and converted for their own uses.

• Huaca Prieto ("Dark Pyramid") is a simple adobe mound which is thought to have been built by people who came perhaps millennia before the Moche.  It was adopted by the Moche, however, and probably served as a major center during the very early phases of Moche.

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Moche River Valley

As far as is currently known, there were three main residential areas in the Moche valley, apart from an elite zone between Huaca de la Luna and Huaca del Sol: Cerro Blanco, Huanchaco, and Orejas. Two of these three, Cerro Orejas and Huanchaco, are thought to have been carry-overs from the earlier Gallinazo civilization.  Near where the Moche River empties into the Pacific Ocean are two of the most famous Moche structures, the Huaca de la Luna and the Huaca del Sol.

• The elite site located on a flat, sandy plain between the Huaca de la Luna and the Huaca del Sol.   Excavations have uncovered buildings which are thought to have probably been homes for the upper classes or supervisors of the pyramids who were not "holy" enough to actually live in the pyramids. In the vicinity of these homes is a set of nine burials in rectangular cells, every burial that of an elite, adult male.

• Cerro Blanco ("white mountain") is the name given to a small mountain behind the Huaca de la Luna, whose slopes are covered with groups of joined masonry rooms, thought to have possibly contained the bulk of the population of the valley.

• Huanchaco's population remained similar during the Moche occupation to what it was during of the Gallinazo habitation, although the residential center shifted somewhat. The settlement consited mainly of room clusters formed by cobbles from the beach which were set in a mortar made of mud. .

• Orejas was not as heavily populated by the Moche as it was by their predecessors. Nearby, archaeologists have found a number of grave trenches, some of them cut into a raised platform.  The original use for this platform is unknown, but the graves appear to afterthoughts, for they seem to have are placed in random mayhem, rather than in a planned or orderly manner, and the depths and dimensions of the graves vary greatly.

• Huaca de la Luna ("Temple of the Moon") is the smaller of the two structures along the coast in the Moche valley. The name may have originated out of a tradition that may have implied that the Moche had "Moon virgins" equivalent to the mamacona of the Inca, and that this structure was their "convent." See especially Phillip Means' book in regard to this idea.  Huaca de Luna's close proximity to the habitation site on Cerro Blanco may indicate that it was serviced by the people who dwelt there there are dozens of other possibilities, including that the situation is mostly coincidence.

• Huaca del Sol ("Temple of the Sun") is the larger of the two structures located where the Moche River flows into the Pacific, across a small burial field from the Huaca de la Luna. The name was rather arbitrarily applied and there is not much real reason to assume that this was, in fact, a temple dedicated to solar worship. Its size in relation to the Huaca de la Luna might imply that, if the latter is an astral body, the Huaca del Sol must be a larger astral body, but this is merely speculative. The huaca was basically a step-sided platform, topped off on the north with a small pyramid and on the south with a small upper tier.  It is difficult to determine the complete dimensions of the structure because it has been heavily eroded by both the ocean and by such extreme activities as conquistadors flushing gold out of the building with the aid of a diverted body of moving water.  See Donnan and Mackey's Burial Patterns in the Moche Valley for an in depth look at associated burials, and also some good overview material on the structure itself.  

  

  Huaca del Sol  (Image from the Project Huaca de La Luna.)

   

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Santa River Valley

In the Santa Valley there were four main habitation sites: Hacienda Tanguche, Pampa Blanca Pampa de los Incas, and Tambo Real.  There were also a handful of other minor sites scattered about the margins of this heavily cultivated and rain-eroded valley.  For extensive information on all these sites, please read Donnan's Moche Occupation of the Santa Valley Peru, which is a very thorough presentation of and analysis of the data gathered during his field time there.

• Hacienda Tanguche is primarily a collection of cemeteries, although there are also several large structures and some refuse deposits. The large buildings are thought to have been public in nature perhaps serving as governmental structures or else as gymnasiums, "concert halls," auditoriums, meeting halls, arenas, or some other entertainment purpose.

• Pampa Blanca ("White Hill") is composed entirely of cemeteries, although a small possibility exists that there was once a settlement. Some small traces of residue and refuse have been found at the site, but not enough to suggest a later phase or permanent situation.

• Pampa de los Incas ("Hill of the Inca") is the largest Moche site in the Santa Valley.  It is a complex site which could perhaps be considered a complete city. There is a large habitation site, several mounds and other structures, raised walk-ways, canals, and, several yards from the rest of the site, a number of cemeteries.

• Tambo Real is a long line of coastal graves and ceremonial structures.

• Huaca China's name literally means "the Chinese Pyramid," an appellation thought to have derived from the insistence of local inhabitants in the Santa Valley that the site was once used as a burial place by the Chinese. In architectural style, Huaca China is a double-walled-fortress, suggesting either that it was a defensive military outpost or else that the tower in the center was important enough to need protection.  The concentric walls of the fortress expertly follow the contour of the land, and undoubtedly served to confuse any unwanted guests. The central tower was placed on the exact summit of the hill on which Huaca China was laid out.

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Viru River Valley

The Viru valley, while presumed to be one of the most important valleys for the Moche's formative period, is home to only one major site, and this was an adopted and converted Gallinazo site. Futhermore, this site was not even taken over until fairly late in the Moche chronology, perhaps in the late third or fourth phase.

• Huaca de la Cruz ("Pyramid of the Cross") was the subject of extensive excavations  about fifty years ago, at which it was thought to be quite a sensation, but has since been much neglected by scholars. The de la cruz of the name come from the solitary cross at the top of the hill here; the huaca may have at one time indicated a large ceremonial structure, but for the moment huaca may only be taken to mean a "holy place," for no such major building has been yet found. What has been found, however, is a complex set of uniquely rich burials. The most important of these is the famous Warrior Priest, similar in many ways to the Lord of Sipan found forty years later and two valleys to the north. This burial, however, was the first indication that some of the prominent, ritualistic persons portrayed in Moche art may correspond to real people.

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