Day 3 - Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna
The first thing I noticed about the Huaca del Sol, and therefore about the site we were visiting, was an enormous pile of bricks filling the view through the windscreen. The Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna were named thus by the Spanish, based on their experiences of Mexican religion: their real names are lost. Both Huacas 1 (or holy things) are the sites of Moche temples made from adobe bricks. Externally, each appears to be a stack of bricks in the form of a truncated pyramid, different only in scale and material from a pile of bricks on your drive that you plan to build a wall with: the plateau marks the point at which the plundering of the structure stopped, although the plundering of the graves within it continues 2.
The start was inauspicious. We drove past the biggest huaca and parked up next to a obviously new building that scaled more traditional architecture up to modern scales and standards of geometry. The museum was well laid out, but was considerably less well stocked than the Museo del Larco in Lima. There were some stand-out pieces, though: the procession of little wooden figures depicting the leading of sacrifices to their fate was particularly striking: even the cotton holding them together was intact.
Picture the scene: Every 5 or 6 years, el Niño is making the weather unpredictable with unpleasant results for peasants. In order to appease the gods, two teams of young men of around 22 years of age are selected to fight one another: a warrior is declared to have lost if his helmet is removed, or if his hair is grabbed by an opponent. The losers (which might be the losing team, but it might not) are immediately stripped, bound and led off to be offered to the gods. They may, or may not, be dosed up with drugs for several days, then their noses will be bludgeoned in order to collect a blood sample, before they are then killed through methods such as being hurled from a mountain or something equally traumatic.
I must admit that my thoughts did dwell on those poor young men: imagining the disorientation, the inexplicable pain, reflected, enhanced, extended and hyper-analysed due to the hallucinogens.
Another striking piece of imagery is that of the seal hunt: during el Niño, the water temperature rises, reducing the availability of fish, causing the seals or sea-lions to be more aggressive, attacking nets and even boats. And so the Moche sent brave warriors out to cull the seals. The depiction of the evil seals leaping with their teeth bared at the poor warriors, who are defending themselves with only their wickedly sharp clubs is a powerful, albeit hilarious, one.
A short walk from the museum led us to the base of the Huaca de la Luna and we ascended by the side of rows upon rows of mud-coloured bricks. We weren't allowed to enter the first chamber right away, because there was a small TV crew filming, so we walked around the outside, descending to see some more of the exterior.
This was a complete revelation: the entrance has been excavated so the entry ramp and outer façade are visible: tiers of colours, friezes of repeated patterns: a sacrificial procession along the bottom, a row of spider after spider with the faces of men and, in horrible, majestic glory, the face of the god whose name has also been lost, known only as the Decapitator.
The mega-structure is the result of the belief that the temples need to rest: a temple is built, used, then 'mothballed' in a pile of unadorned bricks and replaced by a new temple. The geometry and timeline of how this results in a pyramid is unclear but the result is a large number of vibrantly coloured friezes that eventually became over-written or replaced as the mega-Niño caused massive depivation and broke the Moche faith and way of life replacing it with depictions of mortal warlords and chiefs of the Chimú.
The central chambers of the huaca had examples of these friezes, some better preserved than others, still in tiers, including the displeased face of the Decapitator that first gazed upon a modern archaeologist. The frieze, once exposed, showed the Decapitator displaying other emotions, such as laughter, shouting and so on, each face surrounded by depictions of squid, that more resembled Space Invaders.
And so we made our way out, back into the drab surroundings of dirt and brick.
On the way back to Trujillo, passing through the village containing the descendants of the Moche people, the designs and decorations were more obviously inspired by and taken from the friezes that we had just seen. On the wall ahead, the ancient and terrible god known as the Decapitator, whose real name is long-forgotten, in whose name hundreds, if not thousands, of young men had been slain, whose dominion extended for thousands of kilometres along the coast, was shown manning the barbecue.
1 A huaca is a holy object or place. It refers to sacred places, burial goods and so on.
2 The high period for the huacero, or thief of sacred objects, or grave-robber, is the Easter week, when people search for beads to bring them good luck for the rest of the year. Every family has a collection of ancient pots, too. Our guide had 2, but many families may have more.
The start was inauspicious. We drove past the biggest huaca and parked up next to a obviously new building that scaled more traditional architecture up to modern scales and standards of geometry. The museum was well laid out, but was considerably less well stocked than the Museo del Larco in Lima. There were some stand-out pieces, though: the procession of little wooden figures depicting the leading of sacrifices to their fate was particularly striking: even the cotton holding them together was intact.
Picture the scene: Every 5 or 6 years, el Niño is making the weather unpredictable with unpleasant results for peasants. In order to appease the gods, two teams of young men of around 22 years of age are selected to fight one another: a warrior is declared to have lost if his helmet is removed, or if his hair is grabbed by an opponent. The losers (which might be the losing team, but it might not) are immediately stripped, bound and led off to be offered to the gods. They may, or may not, be dosed up with drugs for several days, then their noses will be bludgeoned in order to collect a blood sample, before they are then killed through methods such as being hurled from a mountain or something equally traumatic.
I must admit that my thoughts did dwell on those poor young men: imagining the disorientation, the inexplicable pain, reflected, enhanced, extended and hyper-analysed due to the hallucinogens.
Another striking piece of imagery is that of the seal hunt: during el Niño, the water temperature rises, reducing the availability of fish, causing the seals or sea-lions to be more aggressive, attacking nets and even boats. And so the Moche sent brave warriors out to cull the seals. The depiction of the evil seals leaping with their teeth bared at the poor warriors, who are defending themselves with only their wickedly sharp clubs is a powerful, albeit hilarious, one.
A short walk from the museum led us to the base of the Huaca de la Luna and we ascended by the side of rows upon rows of mud-coloured bricks. We weren't allowed to enter the first chamber right away, because there was a small TV crew filming, so we walked around the outside, descending to see some more of the exterior.
This was a complete revelation: the entrance has been excavated so the entry ramp and outer façade are visible: tiers of colours, friezes of repeated patterns: a sacrificial procession along the bottom, a row of spider after spider with the faces of men and, in horrible, majestic glory, the face of the god whose name has also been lost, known only as the Decapitator.
The mega-structure is the result of the belief that the temples need to rest: a temple is built, used, then 'mothballed' in a pile of unadorned bricks and replaced by a new temple. The geometry and timeline of how this results in a pyramid is unclear but the result is a large number of vibrantly coloured friezes that eventually became over-written or replaced as the mega-Niño caused massive depivation and broke the Moche faith and way of life replacing it with depictions of mortal warlords and chiefs of the Chimú.
The central chambers of the huaca had examples of these friezes, some better preserved than others, still in tiers, including the displeased face of the Decapitator that first gazed upon a modern archaeologist. The frieze, once exposed, showed the Decapitator displaying other emotions, such as laughter, shouting and so on, each face surrounded by depictions of squid, that more resembled Space Invaders.
And so we made our way out, back into the drab surroundings of dirt and brick.
On the way back to Trujillo, passing through the village containing the descendants of the Moche people, the designs and decorations were more obviously inspired by and taken from the friezes that we had just seen. On the wall ahead, the ancient and terrible god known as the Decapitator, whose real name is long-forgotten, in whose name hundreds, if not thousands, of young men had been slain, whose dominion extended for thousands of kilometres along the coast, was shown manning the barbecue.
1 A huaca is a holy object or place. It refers to sacred places, burial goods and so on.
2 The high period for the huacero, or thief of sacred objects, or grave-robber, is the Easter week, when people search for beads to bring them good luck for the rest of the year. Every family has a collection of ancient pots, too. Our guide had 2, but many families may have more.