The South was a golden amazement.
Plateau Machu Picchu
at the very threshold of the sky
were full of songs, oil, man destroyed nesting places
huge birds on the peaks, and in their new possessions
the farmer kept the seeds
in the fingers wounded by the snow.
Pablo Neruda. Universal Song (translation by M. Zenkevich)
From the Moche culture to the present day, many wonderful gold items have survived, but many of them are completely unusual. How do you like this nose decoration, for example? (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Nose decoration, 5th - 6th centuries AD (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
However, even before the appearance of the Incas on the historical arena, there already existed a number of civilizations that knew metal. First of all, these are the Moche civilization (or the Mochica culture, known for its original colored and stucco ceramics and perfect irrigation systems), Huari (the state that became, in fact, the prototype of the Inca empire, although its population spoke a different language), Chimu (with the center in the city of Chan Chan, and also with characteristic ceramics and architecture), Nazca (which everyone knows about from giant figures and lines on a plateau located high in the mountains), Pukina (with the capital in the city of Tiahuanaco east of Lake Titicaca), Chachapoyas ("Warriors of the Clouds", known for their mountain fortress Kuelap, which is also called "Machu Picchu of the North"). They all knew metal and knew how to work with it, although if copper in Mesopotamia was already mined in 3500 BC. e., then in the Peruvian burials, products from it are first found only after 2000 BC. NS. And archaeological finds unequivocally indicate that when the Incas finally appeared here and created their empire, they did not bring any new technologies with them, but only well organized ore mining and began to smelt metal on a large scale.
Also a decoration for the nose, but very simple. Apparently the author was an esthete or "had neither mind, nor imagination." But gold! This is already something! (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
A gold nasal decoration inlaid with turquoise and chrysocolla clearly belonged to a person of taste or position. Moche Culture (AD 200-850). (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Well, the beginning of metalworking in South America was laid by the ancient Moche culture, about the origin of which we can say little, except that it … really was, since numerous artifacts remained from it! It arose on the eve of our era, and existed until the 7th century, and reaching its peak in the 3rd - 6th centuries. The economic basis of this culture was developed irrigation agriculture, based on the use of natural fertilizers, such as guano, which the Mochica Indians mined on the islands located near the coast. Using such a primitive tool as a hardwood digging stick, which only occasionally had a copper tip, they achieved impressive success in horticulture and horticulture. And they also bred llamas, who gave them wool, and guinea pigs … for meat! Naturally, living on the ocean shore, they fished and were engaged in sea fishing.
But how did they carry this in their noses? (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
But the most important thing in this case is that the creators of the Mochica culture were excellent metallurgists and skillful jewelers. Already in the II century. AD they knew how to smelt copper, and alloy it with gold and silver. They were familiar with lost wax casting and gilding of items by etching. Moche metal was also used to make jewelry and luxury goods, as well as for tools.
The golden mask of the Sipan culture. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Pottery was also highly developed. Moreover, the Mochica Indians especially succeeded in ritual painted dishes and portrait vessels, depicting, according to scientists, quite specific people. Modeling in their manufacture was combined with artistic painting, and the vessels themselves (or their individual elements) were very often imprinted in forms, which made it possible to replicate them many times. True, they did not know the potter's wheel, but such a technological method completely replaced it! On some vessels one can find signs that may well be considered as a kind of hallmarks of masters, which indicates a high level of their professional skill.
Ear clips. Inlaid gold. Moche culture. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Mochika fabrics were made from cotton yarn, sometimes mixed with woolen threads. On one of the vessels, for example, even a weaving workshop was depicted, where women work on hand looms, tied at one end to a post or ceiling beam, and at the other to a weaver's belt. Their work is supervised by someone of a higher rank.
Sipan culture mask. X-XII centuries 74% gold, 20% silver, and 6% copper. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
The art of construction is also noteworthy. The Mochica Indians erected a huge (55 m high) stepped pyramid of Huaca Fortalez. Two more pyramids built in the Moche Valley were smaller: Huaca del Sol (about 40 m) and Huaca de la Luna (over 20 m). But these were the centers where the pyramids were combined with urban buildings, and there were also free-standing pyramids and real fortresses.
A portrait vessel belonging to the Moche culture. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
It is interesting that the material from which all this was built was rectangular adobe bricks. Moreover, on the bricks of which large pyramids were built in the Moche valleys, geometric prints were found, which are today considered to be signs of communities, according to which the number of bricks produced as a labor obligation was kept. The walls of buildings of a cult nature were covered with frescoes of a mythological nature, and exactly the same images of mythical characters and characteristic scenes can be found on objects made of metal and textiles and on a huge number of ceramics.
Bottle "Fox-Warrior". Moche culture. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Portrait bottle, Moche culture III - VI centuries. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
"Love". Moche culture. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
At the head of the pantheon of deities of the Mochican society were anthropomorphic deities and, in particular, "God with rays." Zoomorphic, but largely humanoid deities, for example, the warrior gods - the fox god, the sea eagle god, the deer god, etc., as well as the priests gods - the owl god, the monkey god, the bat god, and minor deities - the Urubu vultures, cormorants, lizards, mice, etc., occupied the lower level, where phytomorphic deities were also located. The absolutely fantastic creatures of the Mochica were also known. These are dragons, demons, jaguar frogs.
Bottle cat. Moche culture. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Their deceased were buried in narrow pits, with a ceiling made of twigs and bricks - adoba. The dead were wrapped in mats and laid on their backs. Even in ordinary burials, several vessels and other things are found. Whereas there are dozens of them in rich burials! It is known, for example, the burial of an elderly "warrior-priest" in the Viru valley, who was buried in a copper mask, and he was accompanied by the remains of a child, as well as two women and a man. Together with him, a huge number of ceramic vessels, wooden wands with skillfully carved inlaid tops, various feather products, headdresses and various other items went to the “other world”.
The Mochica Indians loved cats and often portrayed them. For example, here is a vessel showing a man with a cat in his arms. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
They also loved such "sculptural images" … (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
And cats were even portrayed on nose plates! Moche culture. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
On the northern outskirts of the Mochican territory, in Sipan, in the thickness of the muddy platform on which the temple buildings once stood, they found a rectangular grave, in which there was a wooden coffin with the remains of a man lying on his back and holding something like a golden scepter in his hands. The lower part of his face was covered with a golden mask, his body was wrapped in cloth. A huge number of things (more than 400!) Were found in the grave, denoting his high rank - headdresses, jewelry made of gold with inlays, ornaments made of feathers, precious shells, gold and bronze plates that served as shells, gold standards and much more. The deceased was accompanied by eight people.
The excavated grave of the "Ruler of Sipan".
Judging by their clothes and remains, they were his wife, two other women - probably concubines, a military leader, a guard, a standard bearer and a child. Among the animals found was a dog, as well as countless ceramic vessels of various shapes and purposes. Below his grave was the grave of his predecessor, where they also found the remains of a young woman and a lama, as well as luxurious clothes decorated with gold and silver. The presence of rich burials was also noted in the pyramids of the Moche Valley.
Headdress decoration, II century. AD Nazca culture. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
In the VII century. the Moche civilization gradually fell into decay, and at the end of the 7th - beginning of the 5th century. and completely ceased to exist. However, something else is important, namely, that the first finds of arsenous bronze items in South America belong to this culture. That is, in the middle of the 1st millennium A. D. BC, in northern Peru bronze metallurgy already existed. The Tiwanaku and Huari cultures that followed were able to smelt the classic tin bronze, that is, they improved the Moche technology. Well, the Inca state of Tahuantinsuyu, which existed in South America in the XI-XVI centuries, can already be considered a civilization of the developed Bronze Age.
Bronze knife of the Incas of the 15th - 16th centuries. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
For some reason, it is believed that the Inca's main metal was gold, but in fact they mined and processed a number of other metals. By alloying copper and tin, they obtained bronze, which in their society was the only metal that ordinary Indians could use to make jewelry, without which, of course, people of ancient civilizations simply could not exist.
