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DEDICATION AND TERMINATION RITUALS

IN SOUTHERN MOCHE PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE

Jorge Gamboa Velásquez

This paper assesses a set of ideological practices related to the growth and abandonment of ceremonial and administrative
buildings from the southern Moche area of the north coast of Peru. The archaeological record at Huacas de Moche, El
Brujo, and Guadalupito, three of the main settlements in the region, includes evidence for the deposition and manipulation
of animal and human bodies, burning, and the alteration of wall iconography. These activities took place in the period
between A.D. 300–750, and were related to either the construction and renovation of structures or the abandonment of mon-
umental built spaces. The analysis of this data contributes to a better understanding of Moche ritual dedicatory behavior,
contextualizing it in a broader perspective on place making and the marking of time in precolumbian South America.

O
El presente artículo evalúa datos procedentes de Huacas de Moche, El Brujo y Guadalupito, tres asentamientos Moche inves-
tigados intensivamente en las últimas décadas. Este análisis revela una serie de procedimientos de celebración del ciclo exis-
tencial de los espacios religiosos y de interacción política de la costa norte peruana entre los años 300–750 d.C. Los contextos
examinados muestran la importancia que el estudio de las consagraciones arquitectónicas adquiere en la investigación de la
conducta ceremonial Moche, permitiendo incorporar un rico conjunto de nuevas evidencias al debate sobre el significado de
la dedicación y terminación de arquitectura pública en América precolombina.

ne of the most conspicuous traditional
Andean ceremonies in modern times is
the pagapu, the offering to the land that
seeks to propitiate supernatural forces for house-
hold and community prosperity, or for the suc-
cess of construction projects and journeys (Del-
gado 1989; Flores Ochoa 1977; Tomoeda
2000:354).1 In relation to public and residential
architecture, the act of celebrating the beginning
or end of a construction project appears to be
universal, being inherent in the creation of so-
cially significant spaces. In the Andes, pre-
columbian burial practices and the renovation
of public spaces identified in the archaeological
record constitute a rich source of data for ob-
serving the origins of ritual dedication at the
foundation and abandonment of buildings. While
an overview of all of the data on consecratory
behavior in the region is beyond the scope of
this work, it will suffice to note that evidence of
ceremonial events associated with the renovation
of public architecture is relatively frequent in
the archaeological record. The earliest examples
date to the Late Archaic (3000–1600 B.C.) and
Formative (1600–200 B.C.) periods. Sites such
as Aspero, Punkuri, San Juanito, and Chavín de
Huantar show dedicatory practices carried out
by placing stone mortars and human burials in
alignment with the central axes of the main build-
ings (Chapdelaine and Pimentel 2008; Feldman
1985; MAAUNMSM 2005). For later Andean
precolumbian periods, there exists clear evidence
of the intentional placement of artifacts, human
bodies, and other materials during the ritual ded-
ication and eventual termination of public spaces.
Recent excavations at the Wari site of Pikillacta
(Arriola and Tesar 2011) and the Inca site of
Inkapirka Hamanan (Meddens et al. 2010) reveal
the selection, alteration, and placement of special
materials in front of doorways and within ushnu

Jorge Gamboa Velásquez 䡲 Proyecto Arqueológico Pañamarca-Área Monumental and Escuela de Arqueología, Facultad
de Ciencias Sociales, Educación y Comunicación, Universidad Nacional Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo, UNASAM. Av.
José Faustino Sánchez Carrión 908. Second floor, El Porvenir, Trujillo, Perú (jgamboavelasquez@yahoo.com)

Latin American Antiquity 26(1), 2015, pp. 87–105

Copyright © 2015 by the Society for American Archaeology
DOI: 10.7183/1045-6635.26.1.87

87
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88 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
(spaces used in ritual propitiation and social in-
teraction) platforms.
Did the Moche of the north coast of Peru also
perform these activities? As archaeological re-
search has demonstrated, the construction of au-
thority in Moche polities was closely related to
public performances and the control of material
expressions of ideological power, including the
elaboration and use of public architecture (Bawden
2001:288-289; DeMarrais et al. 1996; Swenson
2011). The understanding of Moche public build-
ings has deepened in recent years, with notable
advances in the study of architectural designs and
sequences and the symbolic power of mural art.
Nonetheless, rituals related to Moche architectural
renovation have not been a frequent subject of
comparative analysis, with the exceptions of Haas
(1985; Shimada 1994:238), Uceda (1997, 2008:
160–169)2, and Uceda and Canziani (1998:157–
158). Recent contributions by Chauchat and Gutie-
rrez (2013), Prieto (2008), Swenson (2012), Swen-
son and Warner (2012), and Trever et al. (2013)
offer a set of new contextualized data and interpre-
tations of the linkage between architectural se-
quences, offerings, and intentionally destroyed im-
ages in Moche public and household architecture.
This article examines data from Huacas de
Moche, El Brujo, and Guadalupito, three primary
sites in the southern Moche area—a territory ex-
tending from the Chicama to the Huarmey
Valleys—from which there exists a great deal of
recently published contextual data. The recogni-
tion of the ideological practices associated with
the physical and symbolic transformation of pub-
lic architectural landscapes in these settlements
provides a detailed understanding of ritual be-
haviors associated with the construction, use, and
abandonment of public spaces on the north coast
of Peru. This evidence leads us to evaluate the
issues of integrity, materiality, and alteration of
public architecture for this ancient society. At the
same time, this approach highlights the connec-
tion between the Andean concepts of growth and
rebirth and the broader precolumbian ideology.
Theory of Dedication and Termination Rituals
Public architecture is an extensive category that
includes built spaces used for social interaction
on a larger scale than the household unit, and that
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
are central to representations of social order. Public
spaces are vital for the display of class, rank, or
status distinctions, becoming both sites of en-
counter of different socioeconomic groups and
arenas for the development of social institutions
(Moore 1996, 2005; Smith 2003; Swenson 2011).
This is particularly obvious in precolumbian urban
centers such as Cuzco, Chan Chan, or Teotihuacan,
where public buildings were organized in sacred
built landscapes intended to express statements
of cosmological and sociopolitical order to a mas-
sive and inherently diverse audience.3 Public
buildings in use over long periods of time experi-
enced changes in design and meaning that could
be highlighted by means of consecratory activities
loaded with political and religious symbolism.
Reflecting an interest in understanding process
and agency in the past, the establishment, use,
and termination of domestic and public buildings
have become important subjects in precolumbian
research over the past few decades. The following
paragraphs will present the conceptual categories
employed in my analysis of the consecration of
Moche public architecture. Some of the concepts
incorporate information drawn from the southern
Andes and Mesoamerican studies. These cases
have been selected with the aim of analyzing
Moche ideology in a wider context which inte-
grates information on place-making events from
different regions in the Americas.
Consecration events generally have a ceremo-
nial character, articulating space and temporality
in special environments that engage architecture,
visual representations, and performance. Archi-
tectural dedications can be defined as founding
events identifiable in the material record through
artifacts, bodies, or special items deposited below
or on the first occupational levels of a structure,
which later may be subject to remodeling and re-
construction. Conducted at the beginning of a
construction project, the initial consecratory cer-
emonies of a building may aim to grant life and
power to a building. Architectural dedications
can also make a statement about the connection
between social leaders, divinities, and ancestors.
As such, dedications publicly reaffirm the claim
of a bond between a particular social group and
the meaning of a structure.
Evidence from different regions of the Americas
suggests that the majority of dedications conducted
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Gamboa] DEDICATION AND TERMINATION RITUALS IN SOUTHERN MOCHE PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
in residential structures and public buildings were
intended to mark the initial construction of those
spaces—and the political negotiations associated
with initiating such construction project—as well
as encouraging the correct “ensouling” of spaces
seen as animate entities. Although some authors
have stressed the inherently animistic character of
nature and its material components for indigenous
societies of the Americas (Monaghan 1998), the
majority of studies on architectural dedications
have emphasized the propitiatory and political
character of these practices (Arriola and Tessar
2011: 33–34; Meddens et al. 2010).
Termination is usually defined as a ceremonial
event marking the end of the use of a space. Ter-
mination events are identifiable in the archaeo-
logical record through the recovery of special
materials placed intentionally on the floor of a
structure or through cultural deposits overlaying
structures that have been partially or completely
dismantled. Such indications of termination
events include the presence of scattered and pur-
posefully smashed artifacts, the systematic de-
facement of architectural façades and sculptures,
and the partial or complete burning of a building
(Chauchat and Gutierrez 2013:154–160; Pagliaro
et al. 2003; Topic et al. 2002: 312, 323–324;
Williams 2001:78–79). As the counterpart to ded-
ications, termination rituals may have contributed
to reaching a state of consensus on the end of use
of a built space, becoming a “precondition” for
the rebirth of a community and its ceremonial
settings (Mock 1998:119). Alternatively, the ter-
mination of public buildings may have been car-
ried out by opposite political factions or by local
inhabitants under coercion in the aftermath of
warfare engagements, acquiring a desecrative na-
ture aimed at appropriating or erasing the identity
and prestige of a meaningful structure and its oc-
cupants (Inomata 2003; López Luján et al. 2006;
Walker 1998).
The ending of the original function of a build-
ing could mean the starting point of a new cycle
of meaning. Some acts of architectural consecra-
tion can acquire a compound nature consisting
of both the termination of certain spaces and the
propitiation of spaces subject to renewal. Such
cases are more difficult for archaeologists to in-
terpret, but the meaning of these complex events
can be better understood by recognizing the con-
89
junction of sacred time and space in the religious
ideology of ancient populations (Swenson
2012:15; Topic 2008). Viewed from this perspec-
tive, dedications and events consecrating archi-
tectural renewal appear as integral parts of the
continuous functional and symbolic value attrib-
uted to socially meaningful built environments.
Although carried out at different times in the oc-
cupational history of a structure, both types of
ritual activities contributed to legitimize—through
performances and the manipulation of religious
paraphernalia and special materials—distinct lev-
els of power and authority before the members
of a community.
Available data for the ancient Americas indi-
cate that human and animal sacrifice were asso-
ciated with processes of renovation of ceremonial
settings originated in time cycles, dynastic
change, or natural disasters (López and López
2009; Wester 2010:57–108). To identify the sym-
bolism of a sacrificial context requires, without
doubt, a thorough analysis of its depositional
characteristics as well as the artifacts associated
with sacrificial remains. A human or animal sac-
rifice located in the initial level of a building
can be positively identified as part of a founding
event if the successive construction stages reit-
erate the location, architectural design, and func-
tion of the early structures. The absence of su-
perimposed or similarly designed architectural
levels atop the sacrificial context may indicate,
on the contrary, its correspondence to a ritual
termination. On the other hand, the recovery of
sacrificed individuals within or near tombs of
high-ranking individuals can be interpreted as
part of the funerary practices of a population and
not necessarily as an indicator of the marking of
time within a ceremonial space.
Eventually, some buildings that undergo con-
stant renovation and expansion are no longer sub-
ject to this process. The abandonment of built
spaces can be established from two types of ar-
chaeological observations: the absence of mate-
rials from later occupations and the evidence of
anomalies such as burning, the closing of door-
ways, or the mutilation of decorations (Darras
2003:12). Later attitudes of local settlers towards
ancient buildings are highly variable in time, in-
cluding manifestations of homage, appropriation,
and avoidance (Stanton and Magnoni 2008), as
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90 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015

Figure 1. Map of the North Coast of Peru indicating main Moche sites mentioned in the text. Drawing by Jorge Gamboa.

illustrated by the current modalities of reuse for
public buildings destroyed during the 1980s and
1990s in the wake of political violence in the Pe-
ruvian highlands. Abandoned structures can even-
tually be subject to reoccupation with new reli-
gious, economic, or situational purposes, which
are expressed through activities as different as
the quarrying of the building, its transformation
into a burial ground, or the carrying out of com-
memorative and propitiatory ceremonies.
Data on Consecratory Activities in Southern
Moche Public Architecture
From A.D. 100–800, the territory stretching be-
tween the Piura and Huarmey Valleys on the
North Coast of Peru was occupied by Moche
polities (Figure 1). The major Moche settlements
are currently considered examples of early An-
dean urbanism. Interaction between elite groups
and commoners took place in urban centers
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Gamboa] DEDICATION AND TERMINATION RITUALS IN SOUTHERN MOCHE PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
Figure 2. Huaca Cao Viejo. Sectors with evidence of consecratory ritual behavior (adapted from composite image pro-
vided by Proyecto Arqueológico El Brujo).
through public gatherings in walled plazas and
platforms conspicuously decorated with poly-
chrome murals and clay reliefs (Franco et al.
1994a, 2003; Gamboa 2014; Morales 2003;
Uceda 2001). Rituals and related activities re-
viewed in this paper were conducted in public
buildings used for public and private religious
performances or to accomplish administrative
functions and elite interaction. The Old Temple
at Huaca de la Luna and Cao Viejo belong to the
first group, sharing architectural traits, decoration
patterns, and a series of similarly organized con-
texts that reflect religious behavior. The
Guadalupito platforms stand apart from these
buildings, displaying different growth processes
and contextual evidence for their functioning as
palatial buildings.
Located in the Lower Moche Valley, the site
of Huacas de Moche was an extensive settlement
composed of two massive adobe platforms, Huaca
del Sol and Huaca de la Luna, surrounded by
large residential areas (Chapdelaine 2008; Uceda
2001). From the fifth to the early eighth century
A.D., the leaders of the settlement were at the
head of a political and economic interaction
91
sphere that extended from the Chicama Valley to
the Santa Valley (Chapdelaine 2010a). Archaeo-
logical excavations demonstrate that Platform I,
the main building of the so-called Old Temple of
Huaca de la Luna, was periodically rebuilt, with
successive constructive events in which old struc-
tures were filled with adobe to create the foun-
dations for a new precinct (Uceda and Canziani
1998:157–158). Renovations of Platform I fin-
ished around A.D. 650, when elite competition
within the polity led to a shift in power to the
Huaca del Sol compound and the New Temple
of Huaca de la Luna (Uceda and Morales 2009).
The site of El Brujo emerged around the third
century A.D. as the principal ceremonial center
of the lower Chicama Valley and the center of a
powerful autonomous polity. Excavations at
Huaca Cao Viejo (Figure 2), one of the two main
platforms of the site, have revealed several con-
struction phases dated between A.D. 300–650.
During its early occupational phases, the site was
ruled by military and priestly elite lineages and
Huaca Cao Viejo presented idiosyncratic forms
of mural decoration. The last phase of occupation
at Cao Viejo reveals a strong relationship with
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92 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
the Old Temple at Huaca de la Luna, with both
buildings sharing architectural features and icono-
graphic programs (Franco et al. 1994a, 2003; Mu-
jica 2007:155–171).
From A.D. 600–750, Guadalupito was the
main Moche settlement in the Lower Santa Valley,
presenting an urban landscape dominated by two
massive platforms: Huaca Tembladera and Huaca
Chica (Chapdelaine 2011; Wilson 1988:207, 211–
212). Excavations by the Santa Valley Project of
Université de Montreal at the main platforms of
Guadalupito revealed evidence related to activi-
ties of conspicuous consumption and redistribu-
tion. Both buildings were constantly remodeled
until their abandonment at the end of the eighth
century A.D.
The current scarcity of data on ceremonies
aimed at marking the initial foundation of south-
ern Moche buildings can be attributed to the chal-
lenges of excavating the deepest levels of monu-
mental architecture. A noteworthy exception is
the excavation of the first construction level in
the Cao Viejo plaza, which recovered the body
of a vulture—possibly a black vulture, Coragyps
atratus (Régulo Franco, personal communication
2014)—placed beside two semicircular sunken
rooms (Figure 3; Franco et al. 1994b:57). Carrion
birds were considered by the Moche to be emis-
saries of death and companions of the gods during
mythical journeys. The symbolic importance of
vultures in Moche beliefs regarding sacrifice,
death, and the afterlife (Benson 1975:132-133)
supports the interpretation of this context as evi-
dence for the ritual consecration of the first of a
series of semicircular structures built on the same
section of the plaza during successive episodes.
Data from the Lurín Valley shows that the body
parts of Andean condors (Vultur gryphus, another
carrion bird with an important role in Andean re-
ligious beliefs) were used in ceremonial settings
since at least the Late Formative period (400–
100 BC; Jave 2013). Recent excavations at the
Early Intermediate Period site of Mango I, Cule-
bras Valley, revealed another instance of dedica-
tory practices in a public building located in the
southern extreme of the Moche territory. At
Mango I, the building was dedicated by sacrific-
ing two camelids, which were wrapped in mats
and placed beneath the floor of an entry courtyard
(Giersz 2011:281).
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
Some Moche consecratory acts performed dur-
ing the ending of use of a building can be con-
sidered to reflect interrelated termination and ren-
ovation propitiatory practices. One of the earliest
examples of this behavior comes from an offering
cache found in the Second Building of Cao Viejo
(A.D. 300–400). This cache, placed over the floor
of a corridor in the summit of the platform, was
composed of three wooden clubs without their
gilded metallic coverings, organic remains, char-
coal, and roofing materials (Franco et al. 1999,
2001). The subsequent recovery of complete,
finely crafted clubs in tombs (Franco 2009) indi-
cates that these objects were symbols of high so-
cial rank and participation in religious and martial
ceremonies. Renovation rituals related to the Sec-
ond Building of Cao Viejo also included the set-
ting of wooden sculptures within structures filled
with adobe (Franco et al. 2001; Mujica 2007). A
large sculpture representing a human figure with
two animal beings above its head was found
placed over a level of soil and organic remains
covering the floor of a pillared room. It is un-
known whether this monument originally stood
in the room where it was discovered, but a second
wood sculpture representing the head of a bird
of prey was found nearby. In both cases, the place-
ment of the sculptures was preceded by the re-
moval of metal coverings.
Several caches recovered in Platform I at
Huaca de la Luna also suggest the performance
of renovation-related religious practices intended
to propitiate the foundation of new structures.
Excavations in Unit 16 at Platform I revealed
several adobe receptacles within the fill of a room
complex from Buildings B and C. These features
were filled in with organic remains, metallic re-
galia, and ceramic objects, with a special cache
of gilded copper diadems and ornaments located
over the uppermost row of adobe blocks sealing
the sector (Zavaleta 2005:49–52, 55, 2006:19–
27, Figure 6). Another adobe receptacle contained
a ceramic mask, guinea pig (Cavia porcellus)
bones, and organic remains (Zavaleta 2005:51–
52, Figure 67). Given the artistic quality and the
ideological and economical values inherent to
some of the offered materials, these acts can be
considered a manifestation of the symbolic ap-
propriation of meaningful loci by particular elite
groups (Figure 4). The nature of the materials
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Gamboa] DEDICATION AND TERMINATION RITUALS IN SOUTHERN MOCHE PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
Figure 3. Dual chambers and location of animal offering at Cao Viejo plaza (adapted from Franco et al. 1994a).
found in caches from Cao Viejo and Huaca de la
Luna also indicate that the architectural renova-
tions were preceded by activities such as the ma-
nipulation of high-prestige items, the dismantling
of roofs, and, possibly, ritual meals.
At the Old Temple at Huaca de la Luna, Build-
ing D (dated around A.D. 400–450) is the first
construction stage that provides evidence of ar-
chitectural remodeling. Niches, columns, and
roofs in the main court were intentionally de-
stroyed prior to completely filling the building
(Montoya 1997:26–27). The transition between
Building C and Building B did not involve a ma-
jor process of infilling, but rather the extension
of existent structures in the so-called Upper Sector
(Tufinio 2006:Figures 9–10). Renewal of that
area resulted in the physical destruction of some
previously extant mural decorations from Build-
ing C (Mackey and Hastings 1982; Morales
2003:Figure 14.13).
This is not an isolated example of the partial
destruction of imagery at Huaca de la Luna. Dur-
ing the Building C occupation period, the main
court of the platform was decorated with relief
93
depictions of the faces of divinities (Uceda
2001:53–55; Uceda et al. 1994:271–274). During
the construction of Building B, some friezes on
the north wall were shattered and were subse-
quently plastered and painted white (Uceda and
Tufinio 2003:208, Figure 20.19). Similarly, at
Cao Viejo the covering of the Second Building
by later architecture involved the partial removal
of clay reliefs covering the front side of the south-
east corner room at the summit of the platform
(Franco et al. 2001, 2004:168; Mujica 2007:116,
118–119). In this case, the faces of two large im-
ages of a fanged god were shattered and taken
apart from the supporting wall when the structure
was filled with adobe (Figure 5).
Excavations in Moche public buildings suggest
that particular procedures characterized every
episode of the covering of decorated walls. At
the Old Temple of Huaca de la Luna, relief faces
in the east side of the Building D courtyard were
carefully covered with adobe blocks, receiving
almost no damage. A section of the east side of
the main courtyard of Building C presents reliefs
that were destroyed beyond recognition or com-
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94 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015

Figure 4. Platform I at Huaca de la Luna. Cache of metallic ornaments overlying room complex filled with adobe blocks.
Courtesy S. Uceda and Proyecto Huacas de Moche.

Figure 5. Frieze of Moche god with defaced visage at corner room of Cao Viejo Second Building. Photograph by J.
Gamboa.
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Gamboa] DEDICATION AND TERMINATION RITUALS IN SOUTHERN MOCHE PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
Figure 6. Huaca de la Luna. Differential preservation conditions of reliefs covered with adobes. Photograph by J.
Gamboa.
pletely removed from the wall, while on the south
side of the same patio, the friezes are preserved
in good condition (Figure 6). A late repercussion
of the partial destruction of the friezes in Building
C can be detected in Tomb 2, a funerary chamber
located in the fill between Buildings A and B–C.
This burial of a high priest contained the fragment
of a polychrome frieze depicting a god face in
the style of the Building C patio. This element
was placed beneath the cane coffin during the
mortuary rituals (Uceda 1997:178).
An important but unclear aspect of the data
on southern Moche consecratory practices is the
low frequency of offering contexts in architectural
settings that include the body parts of domestic
camelids. This contrasts with the recurrence of
these animals in Moche funerary contexts from
the Lambayeque to Santa Valleys (Goepfert
2010). In the sites reviewed here, as well as in
other Moche settlements with public architecture
such as El Castillo de Santa, Mocollope, and
Pañamarca, the evidence of offerings of animals
in monumental buildings are scarce or absent, al-
though this situation may change with additional
excavations. The exceptions are the Mango I site
(Giersz 2011) and, for the northern Moche region,
Pampa Grande (Haas 1985), where sacrificed
camelids were part of dedicatory offerings in pa-
tios and platforms. It is worth mentioning the dis-
covery by Swenson (2012:16) of offerings of a
dog and a guinea pig in a ritually terminated cer-
95
emonial structure identified at Huaca Colorada,
Jequetepeque Valley.
Found in tombs and caches, Spondylus princeps
and Conus fergusoni equatorial shells were cere-
monial items relatively common at northern
Moche sites (Alva and Donnan 1993; Cordy-
Collins 2003; Haas 1985; Chapdelaine et al.
2009:186). Nonetheless, these tropical shells are
not particularly abundant in southern Moche fu-
nerary and architectural contexts, and are com-
pletely absent in tombs from Cao Viejo and Hua-
cas de Moche. The number of publications
mentioning southern Moche contexts for camelid
and tropical shells offerings in built spaces is no-
tably small, especially when we consider the
higher frequency of these materials during the
Chimú period (A.D. 1000–1450) (Pillsbury
1996).
Burning and closing of accesses are two pos-
sible Moche termination behaviors. Excavations
at the main plaza of Huaca de la Luna in 1999
revealed that the north portal had been blocked
by an adobe wall crudely plastered on the outside,
an element that contributed to isolating the plaza
from the surrounding areas (Armas et al. 2004:84,
92). Although there are currently no radiocarbon
dates for this event, it seems to mark the aban-
donment of the precinct around A.D. 650 (Uceda
and Morales 2009:91–107). At the corner room
of the same plaza, Moche and Chimú offerings
have been recovered (Tufinio 2007). Data from
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96 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
Figure 7. Blocked access of Huaca Chica excavated by Santa Valley Project of Université de Montreal. Photograph by J.
Gamboa.
the Santa Valley shows evidence for the sealing
of doorways into public spaces in a settlement
coeval with Huacas de Moche. At Huaca Tem-
bladera, the entrances to a massive ramp and to a
storage area on the west side of the platform were
found blocked by unplastered walls built by the
latest Moche occupants of the settlement
(Chapdelaine 2011:Figure 16). It is worth men-
tioning that the excavation of the latest architec-
tural phases of Moche domestic compounds at
the nearby Cerro Temblador sector also revealed
sealed doorways.
Excavations at Huaca Chica in Guadalupito
focused on its northwest courtyard (Chapdelaine
2011:Figure 19). The main portal was found
blocked with an unplastered adobe wall (Figure
7), which retained non-stratified soil fill containing
fragments of Moche vessels and Wari-style poly-
chrome wares (Chapdelaine 2010b: Figure 12.3).
This deposit can be interpreted as evidence for an
event of termination and abandonment in which
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
the entrance to the ceremonial court was closed
and sherds of high-quality local and foreign-pro-
duced ceramics were scattered through the fill.
The secondary entrance to the courtyard was also
found blocked with an unplastered adobe wall.
Other evidence from Guadalupito corresponds
to burning events carried out next to special struc-
tures and accesses. The main patio of Huaca
Chica presented on its eastern side a peculiar
structure with steps on two sides. The west and
north sides of the bench and surrounding floor
areas contained evidence of a burning event dur-
ing which the plaster was reddened by the com-
bustion of organic materials (Figure 8). The west
façade of Huaca Chica also showed evidence of
burning near the blocked main portal, with sec-
tions of wall plaster and floor reddened by a fire
that happened before a rainy period. The fill over
both burning features indicated those areas were
left uncovered and open to the accumulation of
sediments and debris.
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Gamboa] DEDICATION AND TERMINATION RITUALS IN SOUTHERN MOCHE PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
Figure 8. Burnt structure at Huaca Chica. Proyecto Santa Université de Montreal. Drawing by the author.
The Practices of Architectural Consecration
in Southern Moche Public Buildings
The available evidence suggests that Moche ar-
chitectural consecration behaviors should be un-
derstood as activities associated with stages of
renewal and termination rather than of dedica-
tional character. Despite the recognizable bias in
the sample, there is the possibility of recognizing
patterned activities associated with particular mo-
ments in the construction sequences of platforms
and plazas.
Liminal Rites and Material
Integrity of Architectural Decoration
Research on the architectural sequences of public
and residential architecture in the precolumbian
Americas has defined patterns of physical in-
tegrity for materials used in the ritual consecration
of public monuments and buildings, with differ-
ence in the treatment given to offered materials
during foundational dedications and terminations
(Garber 1983; Walker 1998). In the case of the
Moche, artifacts, organic materials, and human
bodies recorded in dedicatory caches and termi-
nation contexts at Huaca de la Luna and Cao
Viejo were found in either complete or fragmen-
tary condition. Animal offerings recorded for
97
foundational ritual practices at Cao Viejo and
Mango I stand as evidence for a possible pattern
of deposition of complete materials during dedi-
cation rites. Despite these lines of evidence, the
southern Moche consecratory events do not reveal
a clear-cut difference between dedication and ter-
mination contexts in relation to the integrity of
items used.
Even as the database on Moche and early Mid-
dle Horizon (A.D. 700–900) buildings with wall
decoration has expanded significantly in recent
years, the known examples of intentional destruc-
tion of murals do not seem to correspond to an-
cient vandalism but to the renewal or termination
of ceremonial spaces. The filling in of decorated
walls at Huaca de la Luna and Cao Viejo demon-
strates the efforts made to protect the integrity of
the ceremonial spaces being buried, an attitude
that can be interpreted as a maintained respect
toward their symbolism. Walls decorated with
friezes and mural paintings were in some cases
cut through or plastered over during a later occu-
pation, which indicates that the design and aes-
thetics of ceremonial architecture could be sig-
nificantly modified when changes in the meaning
and experience of a space required it. An out-
standing example of this renovation practice is
the partial destruction of murals in the northwest
LAQ26(1)6-*DPERD.qxp_Layout 1 2/12/15 10:49 AM Page 98
98 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
Figure 9. Huaca Cao Viejo. Decorated wall showing mural paintings modified by niches (drawing by J. Gamboa after
Mujica 2007:128).
corner room of the Second Building of Cao Viejo,
beside which were discovered the burials of the
“Dama de Cao” and her companions (Mujica
2007:210–211). The decorated north exterior fa-
cade of that structure was cut to make room for a
pair of large niches probably used to contain of-
ferings and mortuary paraphernalia for the nearby
tombs—an action that resulted in the partial de-
struction of six of the eight squares containing
painted images of a divine character (Figure 9).
In this case, the asymmetrical modification of the
decorated wall would have displayed the new
meaning acquired by the chamber during the mor-
tuary rites conducted in the patio. The importance
of the niches in ceremonial courtyards of later
precolumbian societies in northern Peru is noted
by Moore (1996:134–135), who, based on eth-
nohistorical data, suggests that they were used
for the placement of offerings and body parts of
sacrificed animals.
Demonstrating another facet of Moche con-
cepts of integrity of images and buildings, the re-
covery in a priestly tomb at Huaca de la Luna of
a clay face extracted from a frieze panel indicates
that icons recovered from terminated buildings
were occasionally preserved. The defacing of vi-
sual representations was not limited to architec-
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
tural termination. Metallic mortuary masks de-
picting human and supernatural faces could be
subject to the extraction of one inlaid shell eye
(Campana 1999; Donnan 2008), a practice that
Bourget (2006:56–57) argued reflected an em-
phasis in Moche ideology on representing the tran-
sition between complete and incomplete natures
(something seen, for example, in ceramic vessels
portraying one-eyed and mutilated individuals).
Regarding the reasons for the occasional destruc-
tion of reliefs at Huaca de la Luna and Cao Viejo,
it is possible to propose that this behavior was
occasionally performed to represent the liminal
condition of images representing supernatural en-
tities during the burial of architecture and, as seen
above, in association with changes in the sym-
bolism of the building. Why this behavior was
not performed on a larger number of wall decora-
tions is not clear, but it could be linked to historical
processes particular to each ceremonial center, as
the case of Cao Viejo suggests.4
Placing of Inverted Materials during
Architectural Consecrations
A review of the literature brought up several cases
of human bodies and objects placed in an inverted
position during ceremonies marking the renova-
LAQ26(1)6-*DPERD.qxp_Layout 1 2/12/15 10:49 AM Page 99
Gamboa] DEDICATION AND TERMINATION RITUALS IN SOUTHERN MOCHE PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
tion and termination of ceremonial public spaces:
a group of individuals sacrificed during the aban-
donment of the plaza of Cao Viejo around A.D.
600, the wooden human sculpture from Cao Viejo
placed in horizontal position before the Second
Building was filled in, and the offering of a cer-
emonial shield recovered in Platform II at Paña-
marca, Nepeña Valley, dating to around A.D. 650.
This last artifact, excavated by the author and
Lisa Trever during the 2010 season of the Paña-
marca Project (Trever et al. 2013), was found
within a decorated niche covered with adobes
dating from an early phase of the constructive
sequence of the building.
These contexts provide evidence of a regional
pattern of ceremonial termination that involved
as a central episode the offering of artifacts and
human bodies placed in inverted position and
covered beneath intentional filling. The face-
down position of materials can be interpreted as
a means to materialize the passing of symbolically
charged objects into the condition of unseen or
hidden entities. After A.D. 800, Tanguche and
Early Chimú peoples popularized the use of ce-
ramic offerings in inverted position during mor-
tuary rites, placing mold-pressed bowls on the
cranium of the deceased during the burial process
(Donnan and Mackey 1978:242–251).
Human Sacrifice and Termination Activities
Some examples of Moche termination rites come
from walled plazas. The termination of the plaza
of Cao Viejo involved human sacrifices and burial
activities in its southeast sector. Excavations con-
ducted in 1993 revealed the incomplete and dis-
articulated remains of several individuals buried
inside a large cavity breaking the floor of the
plaza (Franco et al. 2001:151, 153–154, 2003).
This cavity was covered with sediment and
eroded adobes, and the plaza lacked evidence for
subsequent constructive activities by the Moche.
The context included the incomplete and disar-
ticulated remains of two children, a young adult,
and two adults, some subjected to special peri-
mortem and postmortem treatment. For example,
one child was buried near a ramp in extended
position, facing downwards, and with a fracture
on the upper right side of the skull. The body po-
sition and the cranial trauma indicate that this in-
dividual was sacrificed, with postmortem removal
99
of the left femur. Nearby the articulated upper
body of an adult was found, also face down, with
its arms in an unusual position. Partial remains
of a vulture and two incomplete bodies of canids
(Régulo Franco, personal communication 2014)
were found as part of this complex ritual of sac-
rifice and body manipulation.
The contexts identified at the plaza of Cao
Viejo stand as evidence of a termination process
that included the sacrifice of young and adult hu-
mans and the dismantling of structures. Other
data suggest that sacrificial behavior during south-
ern Moche terminations was not limited to public
monumental buildings. Rituals comparable to
those from the plaza of Cao Viejo, although on a
smaller scale, were enacted in Residential Com-
pound 9 at Huacas de Moche, where a young
woman killed by a blow to the head was buried
without any ceramic vessels in a room that was
subsequently sealed (Chapdelaine 2004:180, 183,
2008:74). In yet another case of ritual termination
of ceremonial spaces, recent excavations at Huaca
Colorada, Jequetepeque Valley, revealed the de-
position of human bodies—some of individuals
who suffered intentional death—and animals in
the architectural public settings of that northern
Moche community (Swenson 2012:15–16, Fig-
ures 4, 5b; Swenson and Warner 2012:329–330).
It should be mentioned that for later precolumbian
periods there are references of human dedicatory
and sacrificial burials associated with the creation
of architectural spaces, for example, in the cere-
monial and administrative buildings of Batán
Grande, La Leche Valley (Shimada 1990:341,
Figure 25).
Burning of Architectural Features
and Closing of Accesses
Although it could be argued that fires such as
those observed in the monumental buildings of
Guadalupito do not necessarily indicate ritual ac-
tivity, it should be noted that these features were
associated with special architectural components
and occurred directly over the last occupational
floors. The burning events recorded at Guadalupito
seem to reflect a type of termination behavior rec-
ognized elsewhere in the North Coast. At Pacat-
namú, Jequetepeque Valley, a room containing
Late Mochica ceramics also preserved evidence
of libation, the deposition of human bodies and
LAQ26(1)6-*DPERD.qxp_Layout 1 2/12/15 10:49 AM Page 100
100 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
camelid bones, and incineration of valued com-
modities. These features are interpreted as part of
a consecratory ceremony (Cordy-Collins 1997:
288). Additional data on burning events associated
with ceremonial architecture comes from one of
the early buildings of Cao Viejo, for which Franco
et al. (2003:146) mention the presence of rooms
with traces of fire. Information recently published
for the Middle Horizon site of Cerro La Cruz,
Chao Valley (Vogel 2012:94, 141–145) reveals
that the settlement abandonment was marked by
the planned and extensive burning of residential
and public buildings, increasing our reference base
for the relationship between termination processes
and burning events, and at the same time indicat-
ing local differences in the practice and meaning
of incinerations.
The closing of accesses is relatively common
in North Coast archaeological sites of the first
millennium A.D., having been recorded in Huaca
Colorada, Huancaco, and Plataforma Uhle at Hua-
cas de Moche (Swenson 2012). The blocking of
doorways does not appear to have been carried
out only as a practical gesture to prevent entry
into a public space. On the contrary, the contexts
of Guadalupito and Huaca de la Luna suggest that
the closing of the accesses was associated with
the ceremonial termination and intended isolation
of public buildings. Concerning Guadalupito, the
combined burning and closure of access ways into
main buildings support the argument of a planned
withdrawal from built environments symbolizing
authority, a process that included the accomplish-
ment of particular ritual and practical activities.
The abandonment process of Guadalupito also
shows different features from those observed dur-
ing the fall of Pampa Grande (Lambayeque Valley)
around A.D. 750. At Pampa Grande, the aban-
donment event was marked by the selective de-
struction of ceremonial and elite settings, espe-
cially those at the summit of Huaca Fortaleza
(Shimada 1994:247–248).
Final Remarks
The analysis of data on architectural sequences
offers the opportunity to identify a set of social
behaviors directly related to the creation, renewal,
and termination of ancient built environments.
In the past decades these kinds of processes have
[Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015
not received systematic attention, but are fre-
quently overlooked as part of a general approach
to ancient cultural dynamics. Previously, much
of the evidence now recognized as indicators of
consecratory behavior was registered as “waste
layers” or “evidence of squatters.” Nonetheless,
current improvements in recording techniques
and a broader anthropological approach reveal
the importance that research on the organization
and meaning of architectural consecration prac-
tices acquires in our understanding of Moche
conceptions of time, space, and materiality.
There is a growing set of evidence for behav-
ioral patterns associated with the foundation, re-
newal, and abandonment of public buildings. At
Huaca de la Luna and Cao Viejo, and also at
Huaca Colorada and Pañamarca, a cycle of phys-
ical and symbolic transformations of the ritual
space seems to have occurred during the use of
each building. The stages of creation, change,
and termination of the architectural space at these
ceremonial complexes involved the intentional
covering or destruction of mural icons, the place-
ment of offerings on floors and in caches, the de-
position of inverted effigies, and human and ani-
mal sacrifice. The termination activities carried
out at the platforms of Guadalupito focused on
controlled burnings carried out near conspicuous
architectural features and on the sealing of
entryways—activities that symbolized withdrawal
from the main buildings. Foundational dedica-
tions have yet to be reported at Guadalupito.
As we have seen, among the ancient Moche
some acts of architectural termination appear
linked to the dedication of construction activities,
becoming ritual gestures potentially intended
both to celebrate the past and to promote the
renovation of a built space. Votive contexts found
at some of the platforms discussed here designate
the burying of an old structure and the beginning
of a new construction project as times for per-
formances aimed at propitiating the physical
reenactment of the sacred precincts. Our current
level of knowledge of Moche public architecture
and ideology does not permit us to associate
these ritual activities with the celebration of cal-
endrical cycles. Instead, the available evidence
points toward the association of events of dedi-
cation, renewal, and termination with political
changes and responses to natural phenomena.
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Gamboa] DEDICATION AND TERMINATION RITUALS IN SOUTHERN MOCHE PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
The identification of ceremonial practices as-
sociated with the architectural growth of southern
Moche buildings supports the assumption that
early Andean built spaces were thought of as im-
bued with animate identities (Swenson 2012:16-
17). Moche architectural consecrations can be
considered an early manifestation of the late pre-
columbian and modern belief in the enqa or ca-
maquen, the vital force that can arise, be con-
tained, and be manipulated to produce welfare
and animal fertility (Bray 2009; Flores 1977;
Taylor 2000). In a general sense, ritual propitia-
tions enacted in the monumental architecture of
the Peruvian north coast between A.D. 300 and
800 can be compared with the pagapu propitia-
tory practices known through historical sources
and ethnography (Nachtigall 1975; Tomoeda
1994). Nonetheless, in spite of their apparent
conceptual and symbolic relationship with mod-
ern Andean dedications, consecration practices
conducted in Moche public buildings differed
from the pagapus not only by their chronological
precedence but also by their nature as events ar-
ticulating religion, time, public, and scenery on
a larger scale (DeMarrais et al. 1996:24–26).
Southern Moche architectural consecrations also
appear different from those of Chimú society,
which developed in the north coast between the
tenth and fifteenth centuries A.D. In view of the
available evidence, it is possible to assume that
the placing of sacrificed camelids and Spondylus
shells was not a recurring component of the ded-
ications and terminations of the southern Moche
area, a situation that apparently began to change
after A.D. 700.
Moche art does not show explicit represen-
tations of consecratory acts as those discussed
here. The main difficulty in identifying these
practices in the iconography is that images do
not show unfinished buildings or places in the
process of construction (see Wiersema 2012).
Does this exclude the consecration of public
spaces from the Moche pictorial corpus? Per-
haps we should appreciate the painted and mod-
eled architectural representations from new per-
spectives, considering that some scenes could
have been created to celebrate the initial conse-
cration or the termination of an edifice. Given
the importance to the Moche of the creation and
use of spaces aimed for social interaction and
101
ideological negotiations, this possibility should
continue to be investigated.
Who were those responsible for the perfor-
mance of consecration rituals in the monumental
Moche built spaces? The practices discussed here
had different goals, with each ideological practice
possibly related to the status, role, and purposes
of people in charge of the rites. At Huaca de la
Luna and Cao Viejo, architectural dedication, re-
modeling, and termination rituals would have been
conducted by rulers and priestly officials, and
these practices marked transitional periods in the
long-term existence of ceremonial compounds.
At Guadalupito the termination ceremonies were
possibly executed under the direction of local
leaders within a programmed withdrawal from
their political stages. In each of these sites the
dedication, renovation, and termination cere-
monies should also have had repercussions for
the broad population of craft specialists and com-
moners, groups whose role in the development of
the Moche ideological system and structures of
power and authority has yet to be fully evaluated
(see Lohse 2007 for a discussion on this topic).
Additionally, different processes of termination
and abandonment of monumental edifices at
Moche capitals present a challenge for scholars
who, beside identifying the causal factors for the
transformation of specific political institutions and
ideologies, must take into consideration how the
social memory of regional peoples interlinked
with the perception and use of physical remains
of the past (Stanton and Magnoni 2008:5).
Without doubt, the recording and analysis of
evidence for Moche ceremonial conduct associ-
ated with the creation of built spaces will broaden
our understanding of the ideology and organiza-
tion of that society. As demonstrated in this paper,
the careful recording of the remains of consecra-
tory ceremonies and the increase of comparative
information on those rituals and associated prac-
tices is crucial to improving our understanding of
the function and meaning of ancient buildings. At
first sight, evidence of burned floors, sealed doors,
and defaced friezes can be interpreted as the results
of secular activities or accidental events. However,
when considered as part of the human experience
of built spaces, these contexts provide a particu-
larly rich source of information on the nature of
precolumbian public architecture.
LAQ26(1)6-*DPERD.qxp_Layout 1 2/12/15 10:49 AM Page 102
102 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
Acknowledgments. This essay was written during a Summer
Fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks granted to the author in 2009.
I am especially grateful to Joanne Pillsbury, former Director of
Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, for her confidence
and encouragement in the preparation of this work. Special
recognition also goes to Bridget Gazzo, Emily Gulick, and An-
tonio Murro for their constant help. Eugenia Ibarra, Lisa De
Leonardis, Lisa Lyall, Matthew Looper, and Federico Navarrete,
co-fellows at Dumbarton Oaks, provided an excellent envi-
ronment for the discussion of ideas. Walter Alva, Elizabeth
Benson, Hélène Bernier, Alicia Boswell, Claude Chapdelaine,
David Chicoine, Christopher Donnan, Régulo Franco, Carol
Mackey, Ricardo Morales, Jason Nesbitt, David Pacifico, Victor
Pimentel, Sarahh Scher, Edward Swenson, Lisa Trever, Santiago
Uceda, Elisenda Vila, Carlos Wester, and Juliet Wiersema pro-
vided helpful comments on the issues raised in this paper. Aldo
Watanave was of great support in the elaboration of the North
Coast map. Some photographs used in this article were provided
by Proyecto Huacas de Moche, Proyecto El Brujo and Fun-
dación Wiese, and Santa Valley Project of Université de Mon-
treal. I also thank the anonymous reviewers who provided valu-
able critiques on a first draft of the manuscript.
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Notes
1. Pagapu rituals are usually carried out in open areas and
courtyards. Offerings can include vessels, foodstuff, coca
leaves, corn beer, and conopas or illas (small stone animal
sculptures).
2. Uceda (1997) considered the incomplete human remains
found within adobe chambers at Platform I to be offerings
linked to the renovation of the temple.
3. Andean cases of urban planning based on principles of
cosmological representation and sacred landscape are analyzed
by Zuidema (1964) and Sakai (1998), among others.
4. The systematic recording of the destruction of faces
and other body parts of characters represented in Moche friezes
and murals may provide major illumination in this regard (see
Houston et al. 2006:76 and O’Neil 2013 for references on the
mutilation of images in Classic Maya sculpture).
Submitted December 31, 2013; Revised August 22, 2014;
Accepted December 19 2014.