Customer Reviews

Moche Art and Archaeology in Ancient Peru (Studies in the History of Art Series)

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A delightful selection of papers from a 21st century symposium on the modalities of Moche civilization from a wide variety of sites on the north coast of Peru. Shimada contributes a nice piece that focuses on some of the everyday technology that made luxurious living possible with detailed maps of workshops, or mini-factories, that produced ceramics and smelted metals in back street sectors of long dead, repeatedly looted, cities. Meditations on human sacrifice, or at least intentional ritualized killing, and postmortem "quality times" combine with three dimensional portrait images of several men whose accomplishments and sufferings were legendary. The book includes a tantalizing introduction to the images of a narrative told in bas relief on the walls of Huaca Cao Viejo that pique my curiosity -- why are they still under wraps? As a general rule, the illustrative photographs and drawings are less satisfying, because more traditional and in grey scale, than those in other recent books, although they are still quite evocative. Good papers, with good bibliographies, but few Websites which is disappointing because it is clear that all the authorities have taken numerous photos of everything.