Archaeology, Feature, Peruvian History Information

History of Peru Series — Part 13: Moche-Sipán

History of Peru Series — Part 13: Moche-Sipán
One of the tableaux at the Royal Tombs museum in Lambayeque brings to life the world of the Señor de Sipán.

By Paul Goulder — Special to the Peruvian Times —

The author returns to his focus on Peru’s history with this and upcoming chapters.  The previous 12 chapters are listed at the end of this article. 

“Bienvenido al norte” they said. On presenting credentials from the Peruvian Times, the regional office of the Ministry of Culture in Chiclayo, Lambayeque immediately fixed up interviews with the directors of the four leading museums: The Brüning; Huaca Rajada (El Señor de Sipán tomb) and the Tumbas Reales (El Señor de Sipán museum); Túcume; and Complejo de Sicán in Ferrañafe / Batan Grande.

Principal sites of the Moche-Sipan - Maps
This map – originally produced for tourists – clarifies an initial point of confusion: The Department of Lambayeque has as its commercial capital Chiclayo but its cultural centre is now most certainly the city from which the department derives its name Lambayeque. The two cities are only 12 kms apart and not even that, as linear development has almost joined them together.

It was a while (47 years) since I had visited the Lambayeque area, sometimes called – in an archaeological analogy – “Peru’s Egypt”: the land of pyramids and burial chambers set, in this case, not entirely in a desert but also in a dry equatorial carob (algarrobo) forest.

In 1972 the only museum of tourist-attracting potential was the modernist (Bauhaus-purist rather than brutalist) Hans Heinrich Brüning National Museum of Archaeology housing this renowned German-Peruvian archaeologist’s collection, which derived from his own expeditions and also more controversially from intermediaries.

Brüning was in Peru from 1875 (aged 27) to 1923 except for 1898 when he returned to Germany to attend courses (see box).

Bruning in a boxThe Brüning Museum

Exhibits you will see

The museum and the research rooms extend over four floors (but recent visitors report empty spaces reflecting the Ministry’s redistribution policy) and portrays a continuum of Peruvian history over five thousand years through mummies, ceramics, textiles, and other artifacts. From these exhibits you can also follow the advancement of early technology in the Moche civilisation (from the 1st to the 8th century) and the main thrust of the displays overall is on the pre-Inca. One notes the debt the Moche owed the “previous horizon” —  that is Chavin — and how after the relatively brief Wari intervention the later Lambayeque culture merged seamlessly, according to one hypothesis, with the Chimu. It is taken for granted that there should be a Sala de Oro (Gold Room) as a focal point for visitors.

The modernist Brüning museum in Lambayeque.
The modernist Brüning museum in Lambayeque.

Exhibits you won’t see are those that had been sourced from other departments of Peru and which now are to be exhibited in their local areas . In 2002 the Brüning Museum “lost its status” as northern Peru’s leading museum with the opening, a few blocks away, of the Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipán. This took place amongst an intense debate as to whether the Lord of Sipán and the contents of the tomb should be housed in Brüning, the Museo de la Nación or in a new purpose-built “tomb” before or after perhaps going on a world tour.

The Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipán

The Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipán

Day or night “museology” comes of age. The Tumbas Reales de Sipán are a monumental tribute to the Northern Moche culture, to the wonderful new and renovated museum technology of Peru and to Dr Walter Alva and his team who wrested the tomb of the Lord of Sipán from the hands of huaqueros. It seems the grave raiders had already looted an upper tomb but fortunately did not dig deep enough to find El Señor de Sipán resting in a lower tomb (one version of the find is that having got there first and realizing the importance of Sipán, one of the huaqueros —God bless him or her— blew the whistle and reported to the authorities).

When giants bestrode the land

One of the set piece tableaux found  in the Royal Tombs Museum in Lambayeque
“All that glitters is actually gold.” One of the set piece tableaux found  in the Royal Tombs Museum in Lambayeque and in the “Promoting Peru” traveling exhibition (currently in India). Suddenly the Mochica (Moche) culture became as real as, say, the Roman.

Brüning’s period in Peru corresponded to a time when “archaeology ” was more treasure-hunt than responsible scientific investigation.  Archaeologists – often amateurs – sought fame, if not fortune, hoping for a “killer-find”, a Tutankhamun, a Machu Picchu or a Sacrificial Ice Maiden for example. (But don’t get smug: attitudes were similar at the time in Britain, the US and so on. For an ironic twist on this, see the critique of Pitt Rivers by Bill Bryson in “The road to Little Dribbling. More notes from a Small Island”.)

The world had to wait some time for Peru’s Tutankhamun to be revealed. The Lord of Sipán was saved from the hands of huaqueros (huaca-  tomb-raiders) in 1987 by Dr Walter Alva, converting him into one of the later giants of Peruvian archaeology. However, he does not stand alone and the archaeology and museums of the Lambayeque region owe much to the legacy of Alfredo Narváez, Carlos Wester, Izumi Shimada, John Howard Rowe, Christopher B. Donnan, Carlos Elera, Luis Jaime Castillo (currently minister of Culture), Steve Bourget, Carol Mackey, Thor Heyerdahl and Max Uhle.

Max Uhle, considered the father of scientific archaeology in Peru
Max Uhle, considered the father of scientific archaeology in Peru, wrote this work in 1903. Translated from the German into Spanish by archaeologist Peter Kaulicke and published as an e-book by the Catolica University in 2014.

The state of knowledge of Lambayeque’s pre-colonial history had been little more than “everything before the Spanish invaded was Inca.”

Max Uhle published on the Moche, but not until 1903 (*see note below). Rather it was the Moche collections of Rafael Larco Herrera (housed in the Larco Museum) and the Moche-Lambayeque collection of Brüning which established the Moche culture as the central point of reference for pre-hispanic history 100 to 600 AD. (And this was, of course, long before the discovery of the Lord of Sipán.) Together with the Lima (Pucllana) and Paracas/Nazca cultures to the south, they provide a corpus of evidence for a Peruvian classic period prior to the expansion of the Wari Empire.

Later giants

The earlier “giants” of Peru’s archaeological world seemed to come mainly from abroad or were trained there. Now, in the case of Lambayeque, La Libertad, etc. the Universidad de Trujillo offers viable (understatement – it means excellent in this case) courses for home-grown archaeologists and has produced inspired museum directors – expert museologists in the relatively new art and science of museology. (Though the term is not new, having been first used in German: “Zeitschrift für Museologie und Antiquitätenkunde / Journal of Museology and Antique Studies” which appeared in Dresden in 1881.)

Sipán or Sicán

Izumi Shimada directs the Sican archaeological project since 1978.
Izumi Shimada directs the Sican archaeological project since 1978.

Yes, it’s not a spelling mistake, the cans come after the pans and possibly 500 years apart. More formerly Sipán is from the Moche early intermediate period and Sicán from the late intermediate with the Wari culture intervening in between. There will be more later about this system of classifying archaeological periods. To an extent, the Sicán merges with the Chan Chan / Chimu culture. And the joint effort to rival the glory of Sipán has in part been due to Izumi Shimada, who has directed the Sican archaeological project since 1978.

The original Sipán site – Huaca Rajada

Somewhat confusing for visitors is that the site museum at Huaca Rajada no longer houses the main Sipán exhibit, although a visit is essential in order to obtain a more complete picture of Moche genius.

Huaca Rajada Museum

*Note: An e-book version in Spanish is available through the Fondo Editorial of the Universidad Católica and on Amazon.com. This publication together with one on Pachacamac established Uhle as the “father of Peruvian archaeology.”  In the late nineteenth century Germany produced comparatively more archaeologists per square inch than the French and British — these being more drawn to their colonial areas.  The German-trained archaeologists, on the other hand, roamed the world revolutionizing their art and sending back, for example, to the Museum fuer Voelkserkunde in Berlin rather more textiles and other ancient artifacts than they needed to. But this had an unforeseen effect on art and architecture internationally. See: Anni Albers and Ancient American Textiles – Articles – Bauhaus Imaginista’. Accessed 8 August 2019. http://www.bauhaus-imaginista.org/articles/771/anni-albers-and-ancient-american-textiles

Local Bibliography

Narváez, Alfredo. Los Diablos de la Virgen. Valle de los Pirámides, Túcume. (Bilingual text). Alfredo Narváez is immensely respected amongst his peers and this bilingual book traces back a “good versus evil” dance apparently from Europe but with elements from even 500 years prior to the conquest.

Narváez, Alfredo. Dioses de Lambayeque. Analyses the carvings from the “Balsa Pyramid” and also the designs on the so-called Denver Cup. One of the top-ten miracles of survival from the pre-hispanic period.

Alva, Walter. Sipán: discovery and research. Available in English or Spanish in separate volumes, this is a magnificent book telling the story of the discovery of the tomb and of the meticulous conservation and presentation methods involved in one of the most important archaeological events in Peruvian history: the “re-unveiling” of the great Lord of Sipán. Beautifully illustrated but marred only slightly by the quality of the English text.

Wester la Torre, Carlos. Mystery and History in the Lambayeque Culture – the Priestess of Chornancap. (English). Wester de la Torre has championed this more recent excavation and has managed to get this site recognised as part of the rather complex Moche (prior to the Wari) and Lambayeque (post Wari) trail. The Chornancap site rises majestically above the surrounding countryside but is relatively off the beaten track (don’t inspect map above).

Rosa Fuentes Olivares (ed). Sipán y la cultura Mochica – manual iconográfico. Contains 115 pages of drawings taken from the principally Mochica cultures. Many are simplified tracings of Moche / Sipán carvings or of line drawings from the same culture. Many have already been copied into the repetoire of exhibition curators, fashion designers and even the explosive designs of the Lima Panamerican Games 2019.

Fernández Alvarado, Julio César y Wester la Torre, Carlos (editores). Cultura Lambayeque en el contexto de la costa norte del Perú. This heavyweight volume (546 pages) takes an overall look at the truncated pyramids and their sites and cultures which inhabit(ed) the (mainly) La Leche, Lambayeque and surrounding valleys. It does not skimp on detail and mobilises 25 contributing authors into the task. They are all specialists and this book alone could be the unassuming basis for the view that the north-west of Peru was South America’s “most sensational area of civilised development” from the early classical period (say from 100 AD) to the arrival of the Incas only shortly before the Spanish.

Paul Goulder photoPaul Goulder: Academic and specialist on Latin America and Peru. Last academic posts: ENSCP-Paris; King’s College, University of London; UNSA, Arequipa, Peru. Also not-for-profit work in ecology, development and education in UK and Peru.

Online sources consulted

HISTORY OF PERU SERIES

Part 1: The Dawn Of Urbanization June 23, 2010 This was the first in a series of articles on Peru’s history, incorporating stories from the Peruvian Times archives, as well as links to videos, audio and other external sources to provide a rich background of information. This first part deals with the formation of the first towns and ceremonial sites in the Americas. […]

Part 2: Tour 3000 BC To 500 AD July 3, 2010 The second in a series on Peru’s history takes you on a tour through time, visiting four historic sites.  Between them they span more than 3000 years of Peru’s development and cover (Part 1) the first towns, (Part 3) the age of U-shaped monuments, Chavin and Garagay, (Part 4) the decline of the Chavin unifying culture or cult and the transition period typified by the  Huallamarka truncated pyramid in San Isidro, Lima and (Part 5) Peru´s first golden age which saw the emergence of the Moche, the Lima (Pucllana) and the Paracas-Nasca cultures. […]

Part 3: Monumental Architecture July 18, 2010 Across the world, the period 3000 BC to 500 BC (approx.) was an era of monumental architecture. Think Stonehenge (UK), Carnac (France). And then think of the pyramids of Egypt. In the case of Peru the giant structures took on the form of truncated, flat-topped pyramid platforms – sometimes arranged in the form of a U. […]

Part 4: Transition – The decline of Chavín and the rise of the Lima Culture: Huallamarca August 4, 2010 Following Part 3 we have now arrived at approximately 200 BC in our time tour.  We have traveled in the series from the beginnings of  towns through a long stretch of Peruvian history in which the development of monumental architecture, irrigation systems, ceramics and textiles are underpinning more complex social, political and economic structures. Chavin had given its name to an iconographic style. This unifying “early horizon” may have had roots in other areas. For example the Garagay site in San Martin de Porres predates that of Chavin.[…]

Part 5: The Pucllana / Moche / Nazca Period September 3, 2010 A.D. 200 –   650/800. The Lima Culture: Betwixt or Amidst the Moche and the Nasca. The fifth in the series looks on as the Lima (Lurin, Rimac and Chillon valleys) culture spreads its wings yet coexists with the more exuberant Moche to the north and Nazca to the south. Peru was not just all-Inca. […]

Part 6: Reading The Past, Righting The Record November 13, 2010  A simple visit to the Pucllana huaca has provoked some simple questions: Where´s the water supply? What language did they speak? What did their clothes look like? Did they write? We are at 200/500 AD and there are no wheels on our wagons – in fact no wagons yet. Before we start our next “time-tour” let’s try to answer three key questions. What system for record-taking did the ancient Peruvians have – could it be called writing? (Part 7) How did the pre-Wari cultures tame the desert with only elementary technology? […]

Part 7: The Lima Culture and WaterJanuary 21, 2011 If writing had been a “scarce commodity” in the Pucllana period, water was another: water has always been western Peru’s number-one scarce – but perversely sometimes too abundant – resource. There had been varying years of a desert climate interspersed with rare mud slides and flash floods […]

 Part 8: Ancient TextilesMarch 31, 2011. Part eight has an overall look at Peruvian Textiles. Anyone who touches this subject realizes their beauty and their complexity. Some of the oldest and most amazing textiles in the world were preserved in desert graves for posterity. Somewhat pre-Picasso, the Wari people and empire (Peru AD 600 to 900) were “abstract artists” abstracting barely recognizable yet iconic […]

Part 9: Metallurgy, Jewelry and Gold  May 4, 2011 This week we examined the tools historians possess for analyzing the impact of new technologies, particularly in metallurgy. In terms of a time-line, this part starts in an age of copper and ends as bronze makes an appearance. But all the time it is gold that steals the show. […]

Part 10: The Big Picture —3500 BC – 500 AD 

Part 11: From Paracas to Wari – the center of cultural activity moves to the highlands  May 25, 2012

Part 12: Ayacucho – The Wari  November 21, 2017

HISTORY OF PERU SERIES: The Peruvian Times Guide to the “End Menu” May 4, 2011 The End Menu contains all the links necessary to turn you into the leading professor of Peruvian studies. Unfortunately the Peruvian authorities or the gods don’t want you to be and tolerate all sorts of non-neoliberal obstacles to your right to Access Critical Knowledge. The end menu looks like […]

One Comment

  1. What a well documented and organized source of information.
    A required reading for every Peruvian.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*