Customer Reviews

Lords of Sipan: A True Story of Pre-Inca Tombs, Archaeology, and Crime

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At first I found this book (supposededly a true story)written in fictional style and too detailed in some cases to be considered real. But at the time I read this book and living in Lima Peru where the event takes place, I was able to do my own investigation. Now after having read this a second time and meeting others who know of this event first hand, including the police chief in Northern Peru, I can assure you everything I have questioned is 100% true.

The book is about the historic and heroic efforts of Dr. Walter Alva and several North American archiologists who helped uncover a lost civlization in South America and one of the largest finds of Gold and invaluable artifacts ever discovered in South America. It is a story of drama, money, murder and virtue winning in the end. Anyone interested in learning of a true to life experience, written like a novel, of Latin American Archiology will enjoy this book. It is a page turner.

Lima, Peru June 7, 2000

In January 1987 a group of tomb robbers at Huaca Rajada on Peru's north coast had their dreams come true. They stumbled on a pre-Inca tomb of unsurpassed wealth (read: gold) at a site everybody else had written off as already having been plundered. Unfortunatley, for them, greed was their undoing.

What they did manage to sell on the market was mostly exported out of Peru before the archaeolgists at the local museum found out what was going on.

This book details an investigation into international art smuggling, and the parallel investigation into the Moche site that the tomb robbers had found and the archaeologists later excavated.

In style, this book is esentially an extended magazine article. The text is quite large and easy to read. It's not really a big book. There is a colour picture section in the center of the book, but it can't really be called an academic book. In my view what really lets this work down is the lack of drawings etc of the historical site and excavation that they are talking about in the text.

If you've never read any books on the Moche before (and I haven't except the occasional magazine article), this book leaves you feeling somewhat dissasisfied because you want to know *more*, but it's a great introduction and overview to a series of very important events in re-discovering this ancient civilisation.

My wife and I have personally been to the Sipan Project at Huaca Rajada three times. We feel that this book should be brought back in print right away!! Except for actually going to Peru, there is very few sources of factual information about this amazing find. The richest 'dig' in our part of the world EVER!! (began 1987). A story that will bring tears to your eyes, hope to your heart and is an awesome adventure tale that will keep you up all night. Find it, read it ... help to share and preserve the Ancient Cultures of our mutual past.(my actual rating is 22).

There is probably more about the illegal sale of pre-Columbian art objects than about the Moche.But there is still a good description of the Moche culture,although no maps.It would have been interesting to see a map of where the Moche were in relation to the desert areas the author describes.I remember well when National Geographic did their first article on the Moche tombs of Peru.It left a sinister impression of short,squat,hefty dark fellows decorated with all kinds of splendid gold and finery,presiding over an unknown yet significant number of human sacrifices.Prisoners bound on their way to the temple,with priests drinking goblets of blood,either their own or their victims.And all those spooky looking large crescent moon shaped gold and gilded nose rings.
The author subtly takes some of supposed savagery of the Moche and makes it appear more understandable in relation to alot of these pre-Columbian cultures. For one the crescent moon probably is exactly that seeing that the Moche were more "night sky" people and had a sacred relation to the moon and its phases.I no longer have the mental picture of a grunting bejewelled priest waiting at the top of a pyramid to whack a victim with some strange kind of religious mace. Not that it didn't happen that way,just that it's no longer my main impression ala National Geographic,(which still is a great publication.
The author gives a good description of the tomb robbing industry and how alot of Moche art actually ended up in respected upscale art galleries.He traces them from the hand spade Juan Valdez's who'll work for coffee beans to patrons of the arts who'll spend tens of thousands to get these treasures.The author concludes with a description of how legislation both local and international are trying to put a stop to the looting of a country's heritage and how difficult it is to stop it.Apparently alot of the collectors'of pre-Columbian art believe(and at times it could even be true),that they are in fact the saviours of this art and culture.He even hints that pre-Columbian art junkies will lie,cheat, steal,go into unconquerable debt,or even persuade gently to obtain their Moche fix.Is this a new disease that can be classified with a medical term?There is drama in this book as well,particularly the archaeologist, Dr. Walter Alva's story. Alva's numerous confrontations of tomb robbers and angry townspeople,sprinkled through the book,add excitement that we can all identify with.

I've become a big fan of the author Sidney Kirkpatrick I've read his other books, The Revenge of Thomas Eakins and Edgar Cayce, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then I stumbled across this one and decided to give it a read, and I have to say I love it too! Very insightful and fascinating, I highly recommend it.

This is a great story of what happens when grave robbers find something just too good to keep a secret. The tombs they found were full of untold wealth. The personalities of the main characters in this tale are as fascinating as the beautiful treasure they unearth. This reads like fiction but as one other reviewer noted it is all true. I didn't feel the book had a strong finish, but the story itself was irresistable.

I read this book based on the promise that it was a RIVETING TRUE STORY. Kirkus Reviews stated: "Exiciting Indiana Jone-like adventure...blends offbeat characters, local color, and a lurking mystery into top-drawer nonfiction." Was I fooled! After a fairly strong start, the book read like a National Geographic article. It was really too long and failed to take advantage of potential RIVETING excitement as it unfolded. The author wrote like a reporter and did not use embellishment or descriptions that might engage the reader in any type of Indiana Jones-like drama. The motivation for finishing the book lies entirely on the dedication of the reader. The book exists in some type of literary limbo. I am not sure whether it is scholarly enough to be used as a research reference but on the other hand, it does not use enough literary style to be classified as a good story. With that said, it did pique my interest and I have checked on tours to Peru.