this is the Moche Iconography home page Brian Billman ANTH | UNC | CH | USA

an introduction to
MOCHE ICONOGRAPHY
for undergraduate anthropology courses

This set of web pages about precolumbian iconography from the Andean coastal region of South America has been put together for the purpose of teaching courses in South American archaeology and the principles of archaeology. Brian Billman is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and an associate of its Research Laboratories of Archaeology.

Remnants of monumental architecture in the Moche Valley, Peru. Once the capital of the Moche empire, the Huaca del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun) was built of more than a million adobe bricks, many bearing the markers of their makers or the patrons of these ancient brick masons. Across the valley from this immense Moche pyramid, the Huaca de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon) may have been the complex of pyramids and platforms where the imperial pantheon presided. This photograph is taken from The Incas and Their Ancestors, written by Michael Moseley (1992:171) and published by Thames and Hudson of London.

This and related pages were originally created by Christopher Rodning and Brian Billman, with contributions from Seth Murray, all of whom are members of the UNC Department of Anthropology, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. These pages about Moche iconography, created primarily for teaching by Professor Billman, were created through the program Arachnophilia 3.9 and reside on the server maintained by the UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

© UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology CH | NC | USA

Moche Iconography | Home

last modified | 18 March 1999
maintained by | Brian Billman