The general coordination of Infosalud, Ericka Rodríguez Valdez, informed to elcomercio.com.pe that the Department of Health activated the telephone free line 0-800-10828 and a list of injured persons who have been moved to Lima so that the persons could know the state of his relatives lost after the earthquake of 7,9 grades on the Richter scale, which flogged on Wednesday night, principally, the localities of Pisco and Chincha, in Ica.

If the interested person in obtaining this information can call (If is located outside of Peru) (511) 315-6600, extension 2788, added Rodríguez, on having told that Infosalud is centralizing the lists of injured persons who send constantly the diverse hospitals of the national network, especially those of the department of Ica, with the help of the Office of National Defense of the Department of Health.

In the Toll Free, (attending 24 hours), also orientation is offered in integral health, donation of blood, food, pledges and other products that the harmed ones by the earthquake need. Also, a group of psychologists offers emotional support across this telephone number to the relatives of the deceased and affected with the earthquake.

International appeal:

• The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched an international appeal for donations. (The actual appeal here; it’s a PDF). You can donate online and select to direct funds to this disaster in particular.

In the U.S.:

• call 202-462-1081 or 202-462-1084 or 202-462-1085.
• The Red Cross is accepting donations: 1-800-RED-CROSS, or for Spanish, 800-257-7575.
• Also, all donations at St. Matthew’s in Washington DC this weekend will be going to victims.
• There’s also a Wells Fargo account you can donate to at any Wells fargo bank, but it’s unclear to me whether this is a Utah initiative or national. There seem to be multiple Utah initiatives.
• And in Arizona, there’s this.
• ReliefWeb has a situation report and a press release about sending aid.

In Peru: you can deposit money into the following bank accounts:

• Banco de Crédito: 193-19999998-0-15 (in Soles) and 193-19999999-1-16 (dollars or other foreign currency).
• The Peruvian Congress also established this one: Banco de Crédito Nº 193-1622366-0-34 (soles).
• BBVA Banco Continental: 0011-0444-4444444444 (soles), 0011-0444-4444444446 (dollars), 0011-0444-4444444447 (euros).
• Scotiabank: 0005074657 (soles), 0003022500 (dollars).
• Interbank: 200-0000001119 (soles), 200-0000001118 (dollars).
• There are, of course, a huge amount of things being done within Peru (blood drives, food drives, clothing drives, etc), but I figure, if you’re local enough to participate in those, you probably know about them already. Stuff’s being gathered at the National Stadium in Lima.

In Spain:

• Bank deposits taken at La Caixa (Barcelona): 2100-0479-21-0200048852. For info, you can email centroperuanobcn@gmail.com or call 93 265 07 20, 678 66 89 34 or 608 59 3656

In Mexico:

• BBVA Banco Continental opened the account APOYAME-3(042769263-3) / Fundación BBVA Bancomer a.c.

In Colombia:

• BBVA Banco Continental opened this account: Cuenta de ahorros No. 073 213 969 / BBVA Colombia.

In Canada:

• You can deposit into the Peruvian General Consulate’s account in Toronto, Sismo Perú 2007 Account, # 06702 113 - 4329, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). Edit: received this from a person at the RBC: Raph - your reference to Peru Earthquake donations in Canada is inaccurate! Donations can ONLY currently be made at 1 branch in Toronto only - the Yonge and Bloor branch of RBC. It is NOT possible to donate at RBC branches across Canada. However, Canadians can donate to Red Cross or World Vision for earthquake relief.

For info on victims:

• Within Peru there is a toll free line: 0-800-10828
• For outside the country, use (511) 315-6600, ext. 2788
• The Red Cross says, “Inquiries concerning U.S. citizens living or traveling in Peru are referred to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Citizens Services, at 1-888-407-4747 or 202 647-5225.”
• In Spain, the city of Madrid has activated a free telephone line to call Peru, details here.

La coordinadora general de Infosalud, Ericka Rodríguez Valdez, informó a elcomercio.com.pe que el Ministerio de Salud activó la línea telefónica gratuita 0-800-10828 y una lista de heridos que han sido trasladados a Lima para que las personas puedan conocer el estado de sus familiares perdidos tras el terremoto  de 7,9 grados en la escala de Richter, que azotó la noche del miércoles, principalmente, las localidades de Pisco y Chincha, en Ica.

Si la persona interesada en obtener esta información se encuenta en el exterior, puede llamar al (511) 315-6600, anexo 2788, precisó Rodríguez, al explicar que Infosalud está centralizando las listas de heridos que les remiten constantemente los diversos hospitales de la red nacional, en especial los del departamento de Ica, con la ayuda de la Oficina de Defensa Nacional del Ministerio de Salud.

Mediante la línea gratuita, que atiende las 24 horas del día, también se brinda orientación en salud integral, donación de sangre, alimentos, prendas y otros productos que necesitan los damnificados por el terremoto. Además, un grupo de psicólogos ofrece soporte emocional a través de ese número telefónico a los familiares de los fallecidos y afectados con el sismo.

DONACIONES

Para donar sangre acuda a:

- Ministerio de Salud: Avenida Salaverry cuadra 8

- También puede hacerlo en los bancos de sangre de todos los hospitales del Ministerio de Salud (Dos de mayo, Loayza, etc.), Seguro Social de Salud - Essalud (Rebagliati, Almenara, Sabogal, etc.), Fuerzas Armadas, Policía Nacional y Hospital de la Solidaridad.

Para donar víveres y ropa:

- Explanada norte del Estadio Nacional, en Santa Beatriz

- Grupo Aéreo Nº 8 de Lima, en el Callao

- Las parroquias del Perú recibirán, junto a Caritas del Perú, ropa, enseres y alimentos en todas sus sedes

- Municipalidad de San Borja: Avenida Joaquín Madrid, cuadra 2

- Circuito del Pentagonito: Avenida San Borja Norte con Boulevard

- Centro Comercial Ebony: Avenida San Borja Sur con Parque Sur, cuadra 1

- Supermercado Plaza Vea del Centro Comercial San Borja

- Para mayor información, se puede llamar al teléfono 612-5555 anexos 358, 312 y 236

- La Municipalidad de Jesús María ha instalado tres carpas de campaña en la cuadra nueve de la avenida San Felipe, para junto a los vecinos, empresarios y comerciantes del distrito, ayudar a recolectar víveres, alimentos no perecibles, medicinas y bidones de agua

- En Estados Unidos, está canalizando las donaciones y la ayuda. Los teléfonos son: (001) 202-462-1081 / 202-462-1084 y 462-1085. Además, las colectas que se harán en las misas del domingo de la Iglesia St. Matthew, de Washington DC., se destinarán íntegramente al Perú.

Para donar dinero:

- Las siguientes entidades bancarias han abierto cuentas para el depósito de donaciones:

Banco de Crédito: 193-19999998-0-15 (soles) y 193-19999999-1-16 (dólares).

BBVA Banco Continental: 0011-0444-4444444444 (soles), 0011-0444-4444444446 (dólares), 0011-0444-4444444447 (euros).

Scotiabank: 0005074657 (soles), 0003022500 (dólares).

Interbank: 200-0000001119 (soles), 200-0000001118 (dólares).

- En Estados Unidos, pueden hacer sus donativos a las cuentas abiertas por Interbank (Dólares: 200-0000001118 / Soles: 200-0000001119) a través de las siguientes agencias de envío de dinero: Xoom, Bancomercio, Uno, Dolex, BTS, Viamericas, Ria, Transfast, Pronto Envíos, Vigo, Bob Travel, Girosol, MFIC, Intertransfers y Mateo Express. Interbank informa que estas agencias no cobrarán comisión alguna por los envíos. Para mayor información, llamar gratuitamente al 1-866-352-7378.

- En México, el BBVA Banco Continental ha abierto la siguiente cuenta bancaria para donaciones: Cuenta APOYAME-3(042769263-3) / Fundación BBVA Bancomer a.c.

- En Colombia, el BBVA Banco Continental ha abierto la siguiente cuenta bancaria: Cuenta de ahorros No. 073 213 969 / BBVA Colombia.

- En España, el Centro Peruano en Barcelona ha abierto la siguiente cuenta del banco La Caixa (Barcelona): 2100-0479-21-0200048852. Cualquier información, escribir al correo electrónico centroperuanobcn@gmail.com o llamar a los teléfonos 93 265 07 20, 678 66 89 34 y 608 59 3656.

- En Canadá, Defensa Civil informa que también se puede depositar dinero en la cuenta del Consulado General del Perú en Toronto, Sismo Perú 2007 Account, # 06702 113 - 4329 del Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

- En todo el mundo: La sede española de Cáritas ha habilitado en su página web un espacio para hacer donativos en línea. Visite este sitio para hacer su aporte y, si lo desea, obtenga antes más información.

- El Congreso de la República está recibiendo las donaciones que destinará a la asistencia de las víctimas a través de la cuenta corriente en soles del Banco de Crédito Nº 193-1622366-0-34.

- La Iglesia Católica realizará en todas sus parroquias a nivel nacional colectas los domingos 19 y 26 de este mes.

By Jean Luis Arce

PISCO, Peru (Reuters) - Peruvians pulled hundreds of dead from the rubble of homes and churches on Thursday and bodies piled up on street corners after a huge earthquake ravaged the country’s central coast.

Firefighters, civil defense officials and the United Nations said around 450 were killed in the 8.0-magnitude quake on Wednesday night. Some 2,000 people were injured and the death toll was expected to rise further.

As rescuers scrambled through the debris in search of survivors, dazed residents guarded bodies in the street, unsure where to take them. Many of the victims were poor and were trapped after their traditional adobe-brick homes collapsed.

In the hard-hit town of Pisco, south of the capital Lima, at least 50 bodies were laid out in the main square, where a church fell in on itself during a service.

“They had gone to the church for a mass to commemorate a dead loved one,” said Enrique Gonzales, 48, sobbing as he searched for his wife and three sisters-in-law. “They never came back.”

The U.S. Geological Survey upgraded the quake’s magnitude to 8.0 from an earlier 7.9 measurement, and powerful aftershocks rattled the country on Thursday.

Hospitals were overwhelmed with the injured and morgues with the dead, forcing Peruvians to place dead bodies pulled from crumbled mud-brick houses on city streets.

In the town of Chincha, wounded people lay on the floor in San Jose hospital, where walls were destroyed by the quake.

“We don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to hold a wake for her,” Jose Flores, a boy about 12 years old, said as he stood near the body of his dead mother outside their destroyed home in the city 125 miles south of Lima.

“The wall just came down and crushed her when I was outside,” he said.

PRISON ESCAPE

Hundreds of prisoners ran out of Chincha’s Tambo de Mora prison after the earthquake ripped the old building apart.

“The authorities couldn’t do anything. It was really hard to control all the prisoners,” said Manuel Aguilar, vice president of Peru’s prison authority. He said 29 prisoners stayed behind.

In the San Juan de Dios hospital in Pisco, doctor Ricardo Cabrera said staff was struggling to cope with 200 wounded, more than 40 dead and no power.

Many people were left homeless around Pisco and Chincha, where the huge tremor was felt the most, cracking highways and cutting power and telephone lines.

The Red Cross said it would send planes with tents, blankets and other aid from Panama.

With a major highway ruined, Peruvian rescuers airlifted victims by helicopter and airplane to hospitals in Lima. Officials appealed for blood donors to come forward so they could treat the injured.

President Alan Garcia visited rubble-strewn towns and sent condolences to the families of the quake’s victims.

It was one of the worst natural disasters to hit Peru in the last century. In 1970, an earthquake killed an estimated 50,000 Peruvians in catastrophic avalanches of ice and mud that buried the town of Yungay.

The USGS said the quake on Wednesday was centered about 90 miles southeast of Lima at a depth of around 25 miles

and was closely followed by nine aftershocks.

Peru is a leading minerals producer, but many of its major mines sit far away from the quake zone. The Cerro Lindo copper, zinc and lead mine near the zone suspended operations due to power cuts but its structures were not damaged.

In the central square of Lima, the Peruvian flag flew at half-mast as Garcia declared three days of national mourning.

Original Source: Reuters

Technorati Profile

EXPERTS and archaeologists have welcomed the inclusion of Peru’s Machu Picchu among the modern-day wonders of the world, but fear it could spell the destruction of the ancient Inca citadel.

“Look, we do not want to dampen the euphoria over the honour granted to Machu Picchu, but with it comes immense responsibility,” said Alberto Delgado of the NGO Instituto Machu Picchu, dedicated to the monument’s preservation. “The site is already being badly damaged by tourists and could reach a point of no return should strict measures not be implemented right now.”

Machu Picchu - which sits 8,000ft above sea level on a shelf jutting out of the Andes - was one of the few Inca centres that escaped the destruction of the Spanish Conquistadors. More than 500 years later it seems the new wave of invaders, tourists clad in Timberland boots and North Face jackets and armed only with hard currency, may succeed where the conquistadores failed.

UNESCO, which recognises Machu Picchu as a World Heritage Site has already threatened to put the citadel on its ‘at risk’ list and is seeking a series of measures introduced to halt damage.

It wants to concentrate on halting the erosion caused by hundreds of thousands of tourists clambering over the 600-year-old ruins and the damage to the ecosystem over which Machu Picchu presides. It is surrounded by a cloud forest, where the Andean mountains drop into the Amazonian jungle, supporting rare species of flora and fauna, among them some of the most spectacular orchids in the world.

The greatest damage in the short term comes from the town of Aguas Calientes, which sits at the foot of Machu Picchu, a new settlement that has sprung up to take advantage of the tourists attracted to the site. There has been uncontrolled development and building as hotels, clubs and restaurants spring up, polluting the region and upsetting the sensitive balance of the ecosystem. Archaeologist and former head of Peru’s National Institute of Culture (INC), Luis Lumbreras, believes the site is under a very real threat, not just from erosion, but from the buses winding up the mountain, carrying the 2,500 tourists allowed to visit the site every day.

“The vibration of the buses is increasing the risk of parts of the citadel shelf, which is built on granite, falling away,” said Mr Lumbreras. “Fault lines have already been traced.”

Machu Picchu is big business, generating some £30 million every year, and indirectly attracting much of Peru’s £400 million tourist industry. One of the winners from the new recognition of the site will be the British company Orient Express Hotels Ltd, which holds a monopoly over the rail service that links the city of Cusco with the Inca citadel. In a concession granted by disgraced president Alberto Fujimori, currently in prison in Chile, Orient Express Hotels Ltd has 50 per cent control of the railway and the only hotel by the site, the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge.

The INC knows something has to be done and is scrambling to find answers so as to take advantage of the inevitable increase in visitors without permanently damaging the site.

“We are looking for strategies as to how we can handle the inevitable tourist avalanche that will result from the site being declared a wonder of the world,” said Ana María Hoyle of INC.

One of the options being studied is changing the time a ticket is valid. At the moment visitors can buy an all-day ticket, leave the site to eat then return for the afternoon. That may become a thing of the past as tourists are given a strict timetable and forced to view the citadel in supervised groups to prevent climbing over vulnerable parts of the site.

The ‘New Seven Wonders of the World’ campaign was begun in 1999 by a Swiss adventurer, Bernard Weber, with almost 200 nominations coming in from around the globe.

Mr Weber “felt it was time for something new to bring the world together” and to “symbolise a common pride in the global cultural heritage”, said Tia Viering, a spokeswoman.

Mr Weber’s Switzerland-based New7Wonders foundation aims to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments. It relies on private donations and revenue from selling broadcasting rights.

The original list of seven wonders was compiled in the second century BC by Antipater of Sidon. It featured the Ishtar Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon.

Another list of seven wonders appeared in around the sixth century AD, replacing the gate with the lighthouse of Alexandria. But by the time it appeared, many of the sites had gone - and the existence of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon has never been proven.

Anne Minard
for National Geographic News
June 25, 2007

Penguins about the size of humans roamed South America some 35 million years ago, and they didn’t need ice to survive.

That’s the result of a new study by North Carolina State University paleontologist Julia Clarke and her colleagues. (See a picture gallery of the giant penguin finds.)

The study, which appears in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, unveils two new species of giant penguins from fossils unearthed in Peru’s Atacama Desert.

The discovery pushes the date of penguin migration to equatorial regions back more than 30 million years, to one of the warmest periods of the last 65 million years.

The find also casts doubt on climate as the main factor in penguins’ choice of habitat through history.

“The public is very familiar with the image of penguins and icebergs,” Clarke said.

Today’s penguins are cold-adapted and therefore at grave risk from global warming, she said, but the new fossils suggest that hasn’t always been true.

(Clarke’s research was funded by the National Geographic Society’s Expeditions Council. National Geographic News is a division of the National Geographic Society.)

People-Size Penguins

The new study describes two new species of penguins from fossils, including the first complete skull from an ancient giant penguin.

That species, which the authors say lived in Peru about 36 million years ago, is the third largest penguin known and stood about 4.5 feet (1.5 meters) tall.

The other, dating to 42 million years, was about three feet (a meter) tall, which is comparable to the today’s second largest living penguin, the king penguin.

Most modern penguins in South America are 2 feet (0.6 meter) tall or less.

(See a penguins photo gallery.)

Clarke said it’s counterintuitive that some of the biggest penguin fossils were found in the lower latitudes, closer to the Equator. The commonly accepted belief has it that larger animals live in colder conditions closer to the Poles.

The study also describes the first complete skull of a giant penguin, which provided a tantalizing glimpse into ancient penguin lifestyle.

Differences in the flipper also suggest variations in the animals’ walking and swimming styles, compared with modern penguins, Clarke said.

The neck and skull of the ancient species were connected with different arrangements of muscle, and their beaks were a foot (0.3 meter) long.

“It doesn’t scale,” Clarke said of the beak. “It’s really pointed, and there’s this texturing on the bone, a horny sheath. My speculation is that they’re eating fish, using some kind of spearfishing.”

Cooler Than They Used to Be

Scientists had previously believed that penguins migrated to northern South America during a cold era between four and eight million years ago.

But the new fossils, which Clarke analyzed with colleagues in the U.S. and Peru, are from a warm period more than 30 million years earlier.

(Read related story: “World’s Oldest Penguin Fossils Suggest Birds Outlived Dinos” [April 11, 2006].)

The finding counters another theory published last year suggesting that today’s penguins diversified all over the Earth during a cooling period.

Ewan Fordyce, head of the geology department at the University of Otago, New Zealand, said the new results shed light on penguin “structure, history, and lifestyles during an interval that is not well sampled.”

He believes the study opens a door for more studies of marine vertebrates and their responses to climate change.

“For so long,” he said, “people have viewed evolution and extinction as driven by classical biological interactions, such as competition.

“With the rise of plate tectonic views of the Earth, we are rapidly gaining an appreciation of physical driving forces, such as climate change and change in ocean circulation.”

In the case of the penguins, ocean circulation patterns may have been more influential than global temperature in allowing the giant historical birds to inhabit equatorial regions.

Clarke and her colleagues have proposed that cold-water upwelling off the Peruvian coast may have benefited the penguins, either by providing colder waters or by providing nutrient-rich waters with high amounts of food.

The authors stressed that while the giant penguins of yesteryear may have thrived in warmer climates, modern penguins are cold adapted and quite vulnerable to warming.

Original Source: Giant Penguins Once Roamed Peru Desert, Fossils Show

The Chimú were the residents of Chimor with its capital at the city of Chan Chan in the Moche valley of Peru. The Inca ruler Tupac Inca Yupanqui led the campaign which conquered just fifty years before the arrival of the Spanish in the region. Spanish chroniclers were able to record accounts of Chimú culture from individuals who had lived before the Inca conquest. Archaeological evidence suggest that Chimor grew out of the remnants of the Moche culture; early Chimú pottery had some resemblance to Moche pottery.

The Chimu were also known for worshiping the moon, unlike the Inca who worshiped the sun. The Chimu viewed the sun as a destroyer. This is likely due to the harshness of the sun in the desert environment they lived in.

The Chimú are best known for their distinctive monochromatic pottery and fine metal working of copper, gold, silver, bronze, and tumbago (copper and gold). The pottery is often in the shape of a creature, or has a human figure sitting or standing on a cuboid bottle. The shiny black finish of most Chimú pottery is not achieved by using glazes, but instead is achieved by firing the pottery at high temperatures in a closed kiln which prevents oxygen from reacting with the clay.

Original Source: Chimu culture - Wikipedia

The Wari (Spanish Huari) was a Middle Horizon civilization that flourished in the Andes in the south of modern-day Peru, from about 500 to 1200 A.D. The capital city of the same name is located near the modern city of Ayacucho, Peru. This city was the center of a civilization that covered much of the highlands and coast of modern Peru. Early on, their territory expanded to include the ancient oracle center of Pachacamac, though it seems to have remained largely autonomous. Then later it expanded to include much of the territory of the earlier Moche and later Chimu cultures. The best-preserved remnants of the Huari Culture exist near the town of Quinua at the Wari Ruins. Also well-known are the Wari ruins of Pikillaqta (”Flea Town”) a short distance south-east of Cuzco en route to Lake Titicaca, which date from the Wari period before the Incas rose to power in the region.

The Wari are historically important for a number of reasons. They were contemporaries of the Tiwanaku and shared similar artistic styles. Contact between the two cultures appears to have been limited to a span of 50 years in which there was sporadic fighting over a mine first occupied by the Tiwanaku. The mine straddled the border between the two cultures’ spheres of influence and the Wari attempted, but failed, to secure it for themselves.

Not much is known about their government, as they did not leave behind any written records.

The Wari state established architecturally distinctive administrative centers in many of its provinces. Some 300 years after the Wari empire collapsed, the Incas became the dominant power in the Andean region.

The Wari terraced field technology was adopted by the Incas when they began a major push to improve the agricultural productivity of their lands. The Wari had a major road network set up throughout their sphere of influence, which may have become part of the Inca road system.

The native language of the Wari area in recent times has been Quechua, though the comparative and historical study of the Andean languages suggests that the language of the Wari culture may have been a form of Aymara. The Wari culture is not to be confused with the modern ethnic group and language known as Wari’, with which it has no known link.

The Wari had access to many natural resources, including minerals, petroleum, fish, coffee, cotton, sugar, and wool. This is perhaps why the Wari civilization was comparatively so successful.

The Wari was a great empire and though the Inca Empire is more well-known, the Wari lasted four times as long and it may have been the reason that the Inca Empire had cultural unification. During the time of the Wari Empire, the people put an end to cultural regionalism and began cultural unification.

Original Source: Huari culture - Wikipedia

The Moche civilization (alternately, the Mochica culture, Early Chimu, Pre-Chimu, Proto-Chimu, etc.) flourished in northern Peru from about 100 AD to 800 AD. Today it is understood that they were not politically the same people as the Chimú or the Lambayeque. Scholars have proved that the Moche were not politically organized as monolithic empire or state but rather as a group of autonomous polities that shared a common elite cultural expressed mainly in the iconography. Pre-Columbian years as expansive as 300 BC to 1000 AD are sometimes described as the era of the Moche. They are noted for the elaborate painted ceramics and pottery, gold work, and irrigation systems. Moche history is broadly categorized into five periods based on the increasing complexity of pottery decoration. Many Moche ceramic pieces, including their highly detailed erotic pottery, can be found at the Museo de la Nacion and the Museo Larco Herrera, both in Lima.

The Moche primarily were farmers, who diverted rivers into a network of irrigation canals. Their culture was sophisticated, although they had no written language. Yet, their artifacts document their lives with detailed scenes of hunting, fishing, combat, punishment, sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies and harmony was a huge part of their celebrations.

The Moche lived in many valleys in the north coast of Peru: Lambayeque, Jequetepeque, Chicama, Moche, Viru, Chao, Santa, Nepena. Major Moche sites include Sipan, Pampa Grande, Dos Cabezas, Pacatnamu, San Jose de Moro, El Complejo El Brujo, Mocollope, Cerro Mayal, Complejo Huacas del Sol y de la Luna, Galindo, Huancaco, Panamarca, entre otros. There are several Moche ruins not far from the city of Trujillo, Peru. The Huaca del Sol, a pyramidal structure on the Rio Moche, had been the largest pre-Columbian structure in Peru but was largely destroyed when Spanish Conquistadors mined its graves for gold. Fortunately the nearby Huaca de la Luna seems to have been more important to the Moche and has remained largely intact. It contains many colorful murals with complex iconography and has been under excavation since the early 90’s.

Pottery

Moche pottery is some of the most varied in the world. They used molds in order to mass produce huge quantities of it. But despite this, they had a large variation in shape and theme. Virtually all vegetables and important activities are documented in their pottery, including war, sex, metal work, and weaving. They would apply figures onto pottery before it dried, which is seldom done today because of the risk of explosion in the kiln if air gets into the joints.

They also seemed to be obsessed with individuality. Many of the later of the 143,000,000 bricks in the Huaca del Sol had a maker’s mark. Important persons would have vases made to resemble their heads. The portrait vases also show the personality of the subject: some are shown laughing, others in deep thought, others angry, etc. Some Moche art is erotic in nature, showing various acts including oral and anal sex.

The coloration of Moche pottery is not very varied, white and red(nortes) are used almost exclusively, with a yellowish cream color and black in only a few pieces. Their adobe buildings have mostly been destroyed by looters and the elements over the last 1300 years, but the two huacas that remain show that the coloring of their murals was much more varied, with every color of the rainbow represented. Not much is known about their clothing since it has all disintegrated; the Moche lived in the north of Peru, which gets flooded in El Niño years.

Lima’s Museo Larco holds a large collection of Mochica ceramics and artifacts, including a gallery of erotic pottery.

Moche erotic pottery is fascinating, not only due to the vast number of sexual activities represented, but also because procreative coitus was only depicted in a limited number of circumstances. While anal intercourse, fellatio, masturbation and cunnilingus were commonly depicted on Moche pottery, vaginal intercourse was only depicted when the male involved wore ceremonial garb, the female had two braids which ended in snake’s heads, and the copulation occurred under an elaborate roof of a ceremonial building. In these scenes of procreative sex, additional figures are always depicted watching the couple in the building and holding their hands as though in supplication. The precise meaning of this has never been established.

Religion

Moche worship featured a figure called the Decapitator, mostly depicted as a spider, but also depicted as a winged creature or a sea monster. When the body is included, it is always shown with one arm holding a knife and another holding a severed head by the hair. It is thought to figure in the ritual human sacrifice of foreign soldiers or tribal citizens. This human sacrifice also included the consumption of human blood by the Lord of Sipán, who was a Moche spiritual, military and civil leader. This act is believed to have been done to appease the Decapitator. While some scholars, such as Christopher Donnan and Izumi Shimada, argue that the sacrificial victims were the losers of ritual battles among local elites, others, like John Verano and Richard Sutter, suggest that the sacrificial victims were warriors captured in territorial battles between the Moche and other nearby societies. Burials in plazas near Moche pyramids have found groups of people sacrificed together and skeletons of young men deliberately excarnated, perhaps for temple displays.[1] The sacrifices are believed to have been to ensure the coming of the yearly rains.

Demise

There are several theories as to what caused the demise of the Moche political organization. To understand this process of political collapse, we need to consider it as separate historical events in the different valleys where these Moche polities developed. Studies of ice cores drilled from glaciers in the Andes reveal climatic catastophe between 563 to 594 AD, possibly a super El Niño, that resulted in 30 years of unrelenting rain and flooding followed by 30 years of drought. This catastrophe would have disrupted the Moche way of life and shattered their faith in their religion, which had promised stable weather through sacrifices. However, these catastrophic event did not cause the final Moche demise. Recent evidence uncovered by diverse archaeologists has shown that the Moche polities survived beyond 650 AD in the Jequetepeque Valley and the Moche Valleys. For instance, in the Jequetepeque Valley, later settlements are characterized by fortifications and defensive works. In any case, there is no evidence of a foreign invasion, as many scholars have suggested in the past (i.e. a Huari invasion). Evidence of a period of social unrest followed the climatic changes, as the Moche civilization tore itself apart and fought over the remaining resources.[2]

Original Source: Moche culture - Wikipedia

The Moche civilization (alternately, the Mochica culture, Early Chimu, Pre-Chimu, Proto-Chimu, etc.) flourished in northern Peru from about 100 AD to 800 AD. Today it is understood that they were not politically the same people as the Chimú or the Lambayeque. Scholars have proved that the Moche were not politically organized as monolithic empire or state but rather as a group of autonomous polities that shared a common elite cultural expressed mainly in the iconography. Pre-Columbian years as expansive as 300 BC to 1000 AD are sometimes described as the era of the Moche. They are noted for the elaborate painted ceramics and pottery, gold work, and irrigation systems. Moche history is broadly categorized into five periods based on the increasing complexity of pottery decoration. Many Moche ceramic pieces, including their highly detailed erotic pottery, can be found at the Museo de la Nacion and the Museo Larco Herrera, both in Lima.

The Moche primarily were farmers, who diverted rivers into a network of irrigation canals. Their culture was sophisticated, although they had no written language. Yet, their artifacts document their lives with detailed scenes of hunting, fishing, combat, punishment, sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies and harmony was a huge part of their celebrations.

The Moche lived in many valleys in the north coast of Peru: Lambayeque, Jequetepeque, Chicama, Moche, Viru, Chao, Santa, Nepena. Major Moche sites include Sipan, Pampa Grande, Dos Cabezas, Pacatnamu, San Jose de Moro, El Complejo El Brujo, Mocollope, Cerro Mayal, Complejo Huacas del Sol y de la Luna, Galindo, Huancaco, Panamarca, entre otros. There are several Moche ruins not far from the city of Trujillo, Peru. The Huaca del Sol, a pyramidal structure on the Rio Moche, had been the largest pre-Columbian structure in Peru but was largely destroyed when Spanish Conquistadors mined its graves for gold. Fortunately the nearby Huaca de la Luna seems to have been more important to the Moche and has remained largely intact. It contains many colorful murals with complex iconography and has been under excavation since the early 90’s.

Pottery

Moche pottery is some of the most varied in the world. They used molds in order to mass produce huge quantities of it. But despite this, they had a large variation in shape and theme. Virtually all vegetables and important activities are documented in their pottery, including war, sex, metal work, and weaving. They would apply figures onto pottery before it dried, which is seldom done today because of the risk of explosion in the kiln if air gets into the joints.

They also seemed to be obsessed with individuality. Many of the later of the 143,000,000 bricks in the Huaca del Sol had a maker’s mark. Important persons would have vases made to resemble their heads. The portrait vases also show the personality of the subject: some are shown laughing, others in deep thought, others angry, etc. Some Moche art is erotic in nature, showing various acts including oral and anal sex.

The coloration of Moche pottery is not very varied, white and red(nortes) are used almost exclusively, with a yellowish cream color and black in only a few pieces. Their adobe buildings have mostly been destroyed by looters and the elements over the last 1300 years, but the two huacas that remain show that the coloring of their murals was much more varied, with every color of the rainbow represented. Not much is known about their clothing since it has all disintegrated; the Moche lived in the north of Peru, which gets flooded in El Niño years.

Lima’s Museo Larco holds a large collection of Mochica ceramics and artifacts, including a gallery of erotic pottery.

Moche erotic pottery is fascinating, not only due to the vast number of sexual activities represented, but also because procreative coitus was only depicted in a limited number of circumstances. While anal intercourse, fellatio, masturbation and cunnilingus were commonly depicted on Moche pottery, vaginal intercourse was only depicted when the male involved wore ceremonial garb, the female had two braids which ended in snake’s heads, and the copulation occurred under an elaborate roof of a ceremonial building. In these scenes of procreative sex, additional figures are always depicted watching the couple in the building and holding their hands as though in supplication. The precise meaning of this has never been established.

Religion

Moche worship featured a figure called the Decapitator, mostly depicted as a spider, but also depicted as a winged creature or a sea monster. When the body is included, it is always shown with one arm holding a knife and another holding a severed head by the hair. It is thought to figure in the ritual human sacrifice of foreign soldiers or tribal citizens. This human sacrifice also included the consumption of human blood by the Lord of Sipán, who was a Moche spiritual, military and civil leader. This act is believed to have been done to appease the Decapitator. While some scholars, such as Christopher Donnan and Izumi Shimada, argue that the sacrificial victims were the losers of ritual battles among local elites, others, like John Verano and Richard Sutter, suggest that the sacrificial victims were warriors captured in territorial battles between the Moche and other nearby societies. Burials in plazas near Moche pyramids have found groups of people sacrificed together and skeletons of young men deliberately excarnated, perhaps for temple displays.[1] The sacrifices are believed to have been to ensure the coming of the yearly rains.

Demise

There are several theories as to what caused the demise of the Moche political organization. To understand this process of political collapse, we need to consider it as separate historical events in the different valleys where these Moche polities developed. Studies of ice cores drilled from glaciers in the Andes reveal climatic catastophe between 563 to 594 AD, possibly a super El Niño, that resulted in 30 years of unrelenting rain and flooding followed by 30 years of drought. This catastrophe would have disrupted the Moche way of life and shattered their faith in their religion, which had promised stable weather through sacrifices. However, these catastrophic event did not cause the final Moche demise. Recent evidence uncovered by diverse archaeologists has shown that the Moche polities survived beyond 650 AD in the Jequetepeque Valley and the Moche Valleys. For instance, in the Jequetepeque Valley, later settlements are characterized by fortifications and defensive works. In any case, there is no evidence of a foreign invasion, as many scholars have suggested in the past (i.e. a Huari invasion). Evidence of a period of social unrest followed the climatic changes, as the Moche civilization tore itself apart and fought over the remaining resources.[2]

Other

The Moche was an Early Intermediate culture that co-existed with the Ica-Nazca culture. They were preceded by the Chavín horizon and succeeded by the Huari and Chimú. They are thought to have had some limited contact with the Ica-Nazca culture because they mined Guano for fertilizer in Ica-Nazca territory. Moche pottery has been found near Ica, but no Ica-Nasca pottery has been found in Moche territory.

Note: Mochica was the Chimuan language spoken in the area when the Conquistadors arrived, but there is no indication that this was the language spoken by the Moche, so scientists still call them the Moche after the location of the primary archaeological site. There is some evidence they were the same people as the later culture known as Chimú.

Recent discoveries

In 2005, a mummified Moche woman was discovered at the Huaca Cao Viejo, part of the El Brujo archeological site on the outskirts of Trujillo, Peru. It is the best preserved Moche mummy found to date and the tomb that housed her had unprecedented elaborateness. The archaeologists on the site believe that the tomb had been undisturbed since approximately 450 AD. The tomb also contained various military and ornamental artifacts, including war clubs and spear throwers. A garroted young girl, probably a servant, was found in the tomb with her. News of the discovery was announced by Peruvian and U.S. archaeologists in collaboration with National Geographic in May, 2006.[3]

In 2006 perhaps the most lavish (certainly the most valuable, pound-for-pound) Moche artifact ever discovered turned up in a Londoner’s office — a magnificent gold mask depicting a sea goddess with beautiful spirals radiating from her stone-inlaid face. It is thought that the artifact was looted from a nobleman’s tomb in the late 1980s (La Mina); it has now been returned to Peru [1].

Original Sources: Moche culture - Wikipedia