Wider World · 6th–7th century AD · Huacas de Moche, La Libertad, Peru
1,500-year-old Moche child's tomb in Peru held pots of doomed prisoners
The likely elite child, no more than 2 years old, was buried with copper objects and 32 ceramics at the Huaca de la Luna temple.
Huacas de Moche, Peru Archaeologists in Peru have found the 1,500-year-old tomb of a small child from the Moche culture. The grave lies at the Huacas de Moche site on the country's northern coast. The child was buried with two copper objects and 32 ceramic objects. Two of the vessels show prisoners with ropes around their necks, an image from adult combat and sacrifice.
Carlos Rengifo-Chunga described the find to Live Science. He directs the University of Trujillo's Huacas de Moche Archaeological Project. He dates the tomb to the sixth or seventh century AD. No scientific paper on the burial has been reported.
The Moche, also called the Mochica, lived along Peru's northern coast from the third to the ninth century AD. They turned desert into farmland and built monumental temples and water canals. They also left pottery, metalwork, textiles and a distinctive art style. They had no written language, but they made thousands of realistic portrait vessels.
A child's tomb big enough for an adult
The small skeleton is likely that of a toddler aged 2 at most, according to Rengifo-Chunga. The child's sex is unknown. A mask-like copper disk covered the face. A half-moon copper object lay on the feet.
The tomb was large for such a small body. It could easily have held an adult, Rengifo-Chunga said. The team found it inside the Uhle Platform, a mausoleum attached to the Huaca de la Luna temple. The platform has a patio that archaeologists call the Patio of the Serpents.
More than 80 burials had already been excavated at the Uhle Platform. This is the only known child among them to receive such a lavish burial. Rengifo-Chunga said the treatment, the use of copper and the tomb's location all suggest the child belonged to an elite class of Moche society.
Prisoners and a bird-winged figure
The two prisoner vessels belong to the "ritual of combat", a common theme in Moche art. In these scenes two warriors fight. The loser is stripped of his clothes and weapons, tied by the neck with a rope and offered as a human sacrifice. The prisoners on the two vessels are the losing warriors.
Such vessels are rare in a child's burial. Rengifo-Chunga explained why that is unexpected.
One would normally presume that these kinds of vessels represent something related to the deceased's life.
Carlos Rengifo-Chunga, director of the Huacas de Moche Archaeological Project, University of Trujillo
In an adult grave, a vessel like this might mean the person took part in combat. A toddler could not have done so. Archaeologists would not generally expect elements of an adult ritual in a child's burial.
This expands our knowledge on Moche funerary practices.
Carlos Rengifo-Chunga, director of the Huacas de Moche Archaeological Project, University of Trujillo
Another ceramic shows a presumed deity with a human body, bird wings and a bird tail. Some scholars might read it as a god in transformation, Rengifo-Chunga said. The figure holds a square shield in one hand and a goblet in the other. Two bird "assistants" in ceremonial garments stand on either side.
The researchers still have to work out whether this is a known Moche god or a new one. Either way, the figure adds to a debate among scholars. Some argue the Moche worshipped many gods. Others argue they worshipped a few that could transform into many versions.
The objects are now in the laboratories of the Santiago Uceda Castillo Museum in Peru. There they will undergo conservation treatment.
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