Since the discovery of rich graves at Sipán on the north coast of Peru in the 1980s, the Moche (A.D. 100–800) have been the subject of ever-increasing attention. Although this fascinating state society developed innovative forms of urban settlements, irrigation technologies, and political economies, it is most famous for its vibrant artistic tradition, vivid narrative iconographies, and spectacular forms of ritual killing. Steve Bourget's latest book pursues this elite-centered tradition, building on the author's long-term study of mortuary contexts and provocative reflections on Moche artworks.
Although its title may seem familiar, this is a long-awaited book that weaves together many previously unpublished claims and arguments. Focusing on the central role of human sacrifice in Moche religion and its close relation to warfare and the capture of prisoners, it offers a detailed account of Bourget's fieldwork at Huaca de la Luna in the mid-1990s combined with a skillful analysis of Moche imagery. The iconographic inquiry zeroes in on themes related to human sacrifice and death as well as animals and plants that, according to Bourget, are indicative of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions. Expanding on arguments first developed in his Ph.D. dissertation on Moche “sacred bestiary and magical flora,” Bourget views the north coast environment as a dynamic element in shaping sacred geographies, cosmologies, and rituals. He audaciously suggests that “ENSO provided an important template for Moche ideology and that the totality of the iconographical representations relating to the sea and most of those relating to the land could be directly associated with El Niño events” (p. 196). Building on a chronological (re)assessment of key scenes associated with Moche liturgical practices, the book concludes by offering a working model for the evolution of Moche rulership.
Methodologically, the presentation bridges art history, semiotics, mortuary archaeology, zoology, and botany. Bourget's demonstration approaches animals and plants depicted in Moche iconography from anatomical, biological, and ethological standpoints. Borrowing from one of Isaac Newton's famous quotes, Bourget enters into dialogue with the “giants” of Moche scholarship, especially Christopher Donnan. As such, the book is decidedly tailored for a specialized audience, with most of its bibliography drawn from Moche studies. It is well illustrated, and summary tables help the reader follow Bourget's masterful but often circuitous tour de force. A useful index aids navigation, but a glossary would have helped non-Andeanist readers.
After providing a review of relevant literature on north coast landscape (chapter 1), Bourget summarizes Moche political organization, ritual life, and associated imageries (chapter 2). The remainder of the book can be divided into three sections: (1) reporting excavation results at Plaza 3A and Platform II (Huaca de la Luna) (chapters 3–4); (2) analyzing iconographic evidence for ENSO and its relation to sacrificial practices, death, diseases (chapter 5), and the dedicatory offering of children (chapter 6); and (3) synthesizing chronological, mortuary, and iconographic data to delineate a model of the evolution of ritual leadership in elite Moche society (chapters 6–8).
A large part of the excavation results have already been published, but Bourget provides more information on procedures and contexts, especially the stratigraphy at Plaza 3A. Photographs are plentiful and the stellar drawings by Jorge Sachún are particularly helpful. In brief, more than 75 adult male warriors were ritually killed inside Plaza 3A during Phase IV (A.D. 400–700). Older men—hypothesized to be ritual executioners—were buried with adolescent retainers in the contiguous Platform II alongside liturgical tools, including a wooden club soaked in human blood. The sacred precinct was built over an ancient cemetery and children were buried as dedicatory offerings beneath it. Data from stratigraphic deposits are interpreted as indicative of alternate events of killing during rainy and dry episodes related to waxing and waning ENSO events.
Bourget's fertile mind and expert grasp of Moche iconography are on full display in his analysis of the plants and animals disturbed, attracted, or helped by ENSO events. Beyond the identification of different faunal taxa depicted in Moche art, Bourget remarks that ENSO creates deleterious conditions triggering infectious disease, especially leishmaniasis. Illustrations vividly bridge the physical effects of the parasitic infections and their depictions. Although Bourget's demonstration is convincing, it is unclear why Moche artisans and ritualists were apparently so obsessed with ENSO. Perhaps by Moche times coastal populations had become so entangled in irrigation farming and maritime activities that political and spiritual leaders found it useful to build legitimacy around growing concerns about the effects of ENSO.
The last two chapters will perhaps be the most provocative and stimulating for Moche scholars. Bourget, in an attempt to connect his iconographic analysis with a model of political history, reviews elite mortuary contexts. He suggests that if Moche rulers were associated with the killing of human captives, changes in political structures must have triggered concomitant shifts in ritual practices and their representations. Through the dating and (re)assignment of decorated objects and elite burial contexts to different stylistic phases, Bourget proposes three “stages” corresponding to (A) Phase III (Early Moche, A.D. 250–450); (B) Phase IV (Middle Moche, A.D. 400–700); and (C) Phase V (Late Moche). During Stage A, images related to Wrinkle Face, Mountain Sacrifice, and the Coca Ceremony were dominant, while the Sacrifice Ceremony, including the Warrior Narrative and the Battle of Animated Objects, appeared during Stage B. For Bourget the widespread depiction of images related to the Sacrifice Ceremony attests to the unity of “Moche state ideology” during Stage B. The iconography of Stage C, meanwhile, appears limited to the Burial Theme.
While Bourget's book will undoubtedly become a staple of Moche literature, it ultimately leaves the questions of why ritual violence and why ritual combat somewhat unanswered. For instance, changes in Moche iconography are interpreted as indicative of transformations in political structures and a concomitant need to refine ideological discourses. Bourget points out the changing popularity and inferred authority of coca takers, warriors, ritual killers, temple attendants, and other actors in increasingly complex ritual narratives and violent practices. Still, one wonders why warriors and their ritual killing were at all of political importance in Moche times. Indeed, it remains unclear how Moche structures of governance developed or how an ideology of violence and human sacrifice became so deeply entangled with rulership. Was warriorhood institutionalized during periods of real armed conflict? Could the ritual combats be ways to commemorate these ancient times? Was the spread of Moche religious ideology related to the capacity of elites to nurture emotional responses to the perceived omnipresence of violent acts and ritual combats akin to real armed conflicts? How were governance and legitimacy linked to shifts in political economies on the north coast? Bourget valiantly leads the way and positions himself in the debates about the nature of Moche warfare and the origins of prisoners, but Andeanists might have to look beyond elite burials and visual arts to reach more definitive answers. In any case, Bourget has to be praised for a very insightful and most welcome addition to Moche art and archaeology.
