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The Moche culture flourished in the river valleys of present-day north coastal Peru from approximately 100 to 800 of the Common Era. The Moche are distinguished by their distinctive artistic and architectural remains. The word “Moche,”…

Moche combat almost always involves pairs of warriors engaged in hand to hand combat. The warriors usually fight with war clubs and shields, but slings are sometimes used, along with spears that are thrown with spear throwers. The sandy terrain,…

Moche war clubs are pointed at one end, and thus could be used either as a club or a spear. The objects floating around the warriors in this painting are meant to depict the dust kicked up during intense combat. The dust can be portrayed with dots,…

Hummingbirds above the warriors in this painting signify speed and intense action. The trapezoidal objects hanging from the backs of the warriors, known as backflaps, are made of metal. When a backflap is depicted with half light and half dark color,…

The objective of Moche combat was to capture rather than kill the opponent. Defeat is indicated by a warrior losing his headdress and by the victor grasping his hair. The posture of the nude figure on the left indicates that he is dead. At his feet…

After a warrior is defeated, a rope is put around his neck and his clothing, weapons, and ornaments are removed and tied into a weapon bundle. He is then slapped in the face until he bleeds. The bodies, arms and faces of warriors are usually painted…

After the defeated warriors are made to bleed, they are paraded as nude captives with ropes around their necks. Their weapon bundles, consisting of their clothing, weapons, and ornaments, are hung from the war clubs of the victors.

The nude captives arrive at a ceremonial precinct, identified by the large truncated pyramid with a structure at the summit. Some of the prisoners are being carried in litters by their comrades. In the upper right, a nude prisoner with his hands tied…

Two nude captives, with their hands tied behind their backs and their weapon bundles at their sides, can be seen in the lower right of this painting. Their throats are being cut to drain their blood, which is consumed from tall goblets by the priests…

After the Sacrifice Ceremony, the bodies of the victims are dismembered. The heads, arms, and legs are made into trophies by tying them with rope.