Moche
and Chicama
Valley Sites
Cuidad
de Dios
Santa Rosa-Quirihuac
El Brujo
Moche Foodways Archaeological Project Homepage
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Las
Tinajas |
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Consumed by death,
Moche culture revolved around warfare, human sacrifice, and death. The
Moche people, who lived on the North Coast between A.D. 200-800, left
behind evidence of well-developed economic classes, complex labor organization,
extensive warfare, and abundant craft specialization. Among other things,
the Moche are renowned for their graphic depictions of warfare, human
sacrifice and death. Two recently discovered Moche cemeteries and a funerary
platform at Las Tinajas demonstrate the importance of death in Moche ritual.
Excavations in 1999 and 2000 provided extremely important information concerning Moche mortuary feasting and storage. Las Tinajas is made up of a small domestic platform, two Moche cemeteries and a funerary platform with an institutional kitchen. The small domestic platform has several rooms, a hearth, and a ramp leading up to the platform. The two Moche cemeteries were heavily looted.
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Leaving behind massive destruction, the looters nonetheless missed a special offering at Las Tinajas. Adjacent to one of the looters' pits we discovered a cache of musical instruments including several clay trumpets and whistles in the shape of warriors. When we cleaned the musical instruments in the laboratory, we realized that the figure on one of the whistles and a trumpet was the same individual. They had the same face, necklace, ear ornaments and headdress. This individual was no doubt a warrior because on the whistle he held his war club and shield. Looking at the trumpet however, we realized he was missing his club and shield, as well as his arms. When we turned the trumpet over, however, we saw that his arms were behind his back–tied at the wrist. He was now a captive prisoner! These kinds of scenes are typical for the Moche. Warfare, death and human sacrifice are common themes in Moche iconography.
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The 24 x 27 meter funerary platform appears to be devoted to administrative, mortuary and feasting activities. Rooms in the western portion were well made (e.g., thick plasteredfloors) and were kept relatively clean. Over 11 tombs-most of them looted-were located in the western and central portions of the platform. Artifacts left behind by looters (e.g., fineware sherds, copper, and gold and shell beads) indicate the relatively wealthy status of the individuals interred in the tombs.
The eastern portion of the funerary platform was devoted to domestic activities–especially large-scale cooking and storage. We discovered a large communal kitchen with at least three formal hearths. Two of the hearths are over four meters long–some of the largest cooking hearths ever encountered on the north coast of Peru. It appears that Moche cooks used this area to prepare llamas for funerary feasts. Llama bones dominated the excavated faunal assemblage (guinea pig, bird, fish, and sea mammal also were recovered). Some llamas were butchered. Others were buried whole suggesting sacrifice–possibly for their blood. One remarkably well-preserved llama, fur included, still had a rope around its neck!
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It appears that specialized food preparation at Las Tinajas focused on preparing llamas for feasting. It is possible that other nearby compounds specialized in the preparation of other feast foods, such as chicha (maize beer). Storage apparently was localized and contrasts with other centers such as Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna. We hope that further excavations and analyses at Las Tinajas and other compounds at El Brujo will refine our understanding of Moche feasting and storage activities while also providing important comparative data to other Moche sites.
A distinctive characteristic of the funerary compound is the abundance of tinajas–or large ceramic storage vessels–that are distributed throughout the compound and from which the compound gets its name. One tinaja measured over 85 cm. in diameter. The large vessels typically were buried with the opening or rim of the tinaja at floor level providing easy access to the contents. Frequently, modification of a tinaja increased the storage capacity by burying the vessel well below the floor, then placing several courses of adobe around the rim, bringing it to floor level. Because they were constructed with a wide mouth or opening we believe that these tinajas were used to store dry goods as opposed to liquids. The large number of tinajas indicates a distinctive type of storage. Although our El Brujo sample is still relatively small, the lack of formal storage rooms and the novel nature of the tinaja storage system may indicate localized storage compared to more centralized storage similar to what is found at the Moche center of Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna.
Most of the tinajas were empty of in situ cultural material. Two sealed tinajas, however, contained burials–one llama and one human. The llama was buried with only one leg. Several ground stone fragments–the tools of a cook–were placed on top of the llama and then it was sealed with clay and adobes. The other tinaja contained a human burial–an old man between the ages of 50-60 with an extreme case of arthritis in his spinal column, wrists, and ankles. Interestingly he was missing both his hands. Was this related to his arthritis? It is indeed interesting that we have a llama with only one leg and a human with no hands or feet buried only a few meters away from each other. Click here for more images of the 1999-2000 Las Tinajas Project.
