The Moche of ancient Peru : media and messages / Jeffrey Quilter ; foreword by Luis Jaime Castillo B. ; photographs by Mark Craig

Author:: Quilter, Jeffrey, 1949-
Published:: Cambridge, Mass. : Peabody Museum Press, [2010]
Copyright Date:: ©2010
Physical Description:: xvi, 154 pages : illustrations (some color), color map ; 22 cm.
Additional Creators:: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

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Series:

Peabody Museum collections series

Contents:

Moche and its art style -- Ancient life on the north coast -- Moche in Andean prehistory -- A brief history of Moche studies -- Media for Moche messages -- The messages of Moche art -- Gods, priests, lords, warriors, and heroes -- Media, messages, religion, and politics -- Reconsidering Moche -- The Peabody Museum collection -- Color plates.

Summary:

In the coastal lowlands of northern Peru, the Moche archaeological culture flourished from about A.D. 100 to 800. Moche culture is well known for its vividly painted and realistically modeled ceramics, outstanding examples of which reside in a magnificent collection at Harvard's Peabody Museum. In The Moche of Ancient Peru, Peruvianist archaeologist Jeffrey Quilter presents a thorough introduction to this fascinating culture and explores current thinking about Moche politics, history, society, and religion. --
Quilter utilizes the Peabody's collection as a means to investigate how the Moche used various media, particularly ceramics, to convey messages about their lives and beliefs. His presentation provides a critical examination and rethinking of many of the commonly held interpretations of Moche artifacts and their imagery. It also raises important questions about art production and its role in this and other ancient and modern cultures. --
The most up-to-date monograph currently available on the Moche---and the first extensive discussion of the Peabody Museum's collection of Moche ceramics---this richly illustrated volume is informative for the general reader and contributes to ongoing scholarly discussions for the specialist. Quilter's challenge to ideas of the Moche as an expansionist theocratic state that practiced ritual warfare furthers our understanding of this ancient Peruvian phenomenon, and his fresh reading of Moche visual imagery casts new light on the traditional arts of Peru. --Book Jacket.

Subject(s):

ISBN:

9780873654067 (pbk. : alk. paper)
0873654064 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Bibliography Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-154).

View MARC record | catkey: 6965103