Christopher Donnan (1978)
The Moche (or Mochica) were a culture who flourished on the north coast of Peru from around 400 AD to 1000 AD. They left a wealth of pottery which gives valuable information for wargamers wishing to re-create their armies.
This page shows a number of line drawings taken from Moche pottery. These images are from the Moche Iconography site from the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina. More drawings and details of their origins can be found there. See the page on warriors in particular. In these pages note the capture of prisoners and the collection of "weapon bundles".
The line drawings are in black and white. However the colours used can be inferred from anthropomorphous pots, as illustrated above. From these and other pots, clothing colours could be black, white, red, yellow, tan and brown with blues and greens possible.
The first two illustrations show Moche warriors in battle.
In these illustrations we can see there are two distinct warrior types in combat, possibly representing different tribes. Details of shields (both round and square), helmets, head-dress, weapons, clothing patterns and body paint can be clearly made out. These details are similar to those seen on the anthropomorphous pots shown at the top of this page.
The Moche painted their body with black paint. This can be seen of the faces and legs of the figures above. Some figures have a hand painted black. Also of interest is that most fighting is with clubs. However the central figure of the top drawing has darts held behind his shield. The "axe-head" shape hanging off the belt of some of the warriors was believed to be a copper knife, but recent archaeological findings have shown it to be be copper "buttock" armour.
Importantly, these two drawings show a variety of dress. Some warriors in these pictures wear just the breechclout ( huaras) and belt ( chumpi), or breechclout and short tunic ( unco), or a longer tunic halfway down their thighs. Note that the short tunic seems to have sleeves, while the longer doesn't.
The clubs of different types. The most common, carried by the warriors with the longer tunics, have a disc at the top surmounted by a pointed cone. Most of the other warriors use a club with a round weight near the end, though some have star-shaped weights. All of these clubs end in a sharp point at the end opposite the weight, and from the illustrations they may also have been used as a stabbing weapon.
Recent work has put forward the hypothesis that the fighting depicted on many Moche pots is purely ritualistic, though the losers would be sacrificed. In this it is similar to the ball-game of Meso-America where participation was voluntary, but the losers were ritually killed. Evidence for this is that the warriors are wearing elaborate costumes, that bodies killed in battle are rarely depicted, and that the main occupation of the nobles is the capture of opponents by grasping their hair. It has been suggested that all that was needed to win this ritual battle and capture an opponent for sacrifice was to knock off their elaborate head-dress.
While this hypothesis is plausible, it does ignore a great deal of evidence against it. Interpretation of art must always take into account both the intended audience and the sponsor of the work. If the capture of enemies for sacrifice was an important status symbol, then this act would be depicted more often. Similarly the finery of the participants may be exaggerated, though elaborate costumes for combat are not unusual as anyone familiar with the Aztec culture would attest. The grasping of captives hair is a very common image throughout human history, not only in Meso- and South America, but can be seen on the Narmer Palete from the Egyptian Old Kingdom c3000 BC. This can hardly be depicted while the captive is wearing an elaborate head-dress.
The next illustrations are from Alan Saunders drawn from exhibits from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
In the first two illustrations, the red spots represent metal discs. The first warrior carries a heavy, tapering wooden club and wears a helmet and a sleeveless tunic. The second warrior is drawn in the shape of a lima bean. He has four darts in one hand. The other holds a shield, heavy club, hooked spear-thrower and eight spiked throw-sticks, which is shown in the last image.
The next two illustrations show details of deer hunts.
Christopher Donnan (1978)
The tunics in the first illustration are of the longer style, but have sleeves. The tunics in the second hunting illustration are similar to some of those in the second battle illustration. The nobles in the second hunt illustration wear what look like pteruges (strips of cloth or leather) below the short tunic. Given the similar pattern on the short tunics of these nobles and the ones in the second battle illustration, I suggest they represent some sort of fabric armour, may be padded cotton or possibly strips of leather. Note that the central figures in the first battle illustration may be wearing wooden-slat armour.
These illustrations are of interest because they show the use of an atl-atl, or spear-thrower. Both show the use of nets to herd the deer into the killing zone, and the second drawing clearly shows the use of dogs in the hunt.
The hunting of deer may have been a "royal" prerogative, and may even have had religious aspects. While Moche middens are full of the bones of many animals, hardly any are deer. The elaborate clothing and head-dresses point to an exclusive noble activity, but again the illustrations may exaggerate the clothing of the participants.
The next illustration shows a group of Moche chewing coca leaves.
I include this illustration primarily to show more tunic patterns. However this illustration has some wonderful detail. A club and shield can be seen in the background. The sitting figures are dipping sticks into lime pots, the same type of pots that are used by highland peoples today. Notice the finely decorated coca bag ( chuspa).
This scene may depict a religious ritual, or they may just be having a party. It is interesting to note how the artist has depicted drug induced hallucinations, such as the dots above the figures, what look like bats flying about the standing figure (Note: He has dropped his lime pot and coca-bag, and the double headed "dragon" arched above his head. This "dragon" is an important element in Moche ritual art, but similar elongated figures and patterns can be seen in cave art from many pre-literate cultures, again in connection with (drug induced) trances. In any case, this guy is seriously tripping out.
Source of illustrations:
Christopher Donnan (1978)
Moche Art of Peru. University of California, Museum of Culture History, Los Angeles.
Alan Saunders (2003) Drawings of objects in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Other Websites:
John Garvey
Began: 20/06/2000
Last Revised: 18/03/04