1

Body Ornaments from Moche and Santa Valleys:

Functions and Symbolism

Hélène Bernier
Département d’anthropoloie
Université de Montréal

Abstract
Body ornamentation was part of the Moche daily life. Following stylistic and esthetic
canons, ornaments expressed some beliefs, displayed social identities, and demonstrated
status and power. Recent excavations in the Moche and Santa Valleys revealed a strong
similarity between the beads and pendants used in the major centers of both Valleys
concerning the geometric forms and figurative themes. These ornaments illustrate
symbols clearly inspired by the Moche religious universe depicted in iconographic
scenes. Body ornamentation thus reflects a collective ideology shared by groups of the
Southern Moche State. The body ornaments of Moche and Santa will be described and
compared. Their role and symbolism will be discussed.

Introduction
Ornamentation was of great importance in all aspects of the Moche cultural environment.
A glimpse at the crafted objects uncovered in Moche archeological contexts reveals the
diversity of decorative designs and techniques, combining esthetics and symbolism. The
human body was no exception to this tendency to ornamentation. Moche body ornaments
showed a great artistic quality and prove the technical skills of the artisans who created
them. Behind the visual harmony of the ornaments lie other fundamental functions,
related to religious and political spheres. This paper will focus on the social aspects,
meanings and functions of body decoration for the general population of the Southern
Moche State. The ornaments found in the Moche site’s urban sector will be considered
and compared to those recovered in domestic contexts of three major sites in the Santa
Valley: El Castillo (G-93), Hacienda San José (G-192) and Guadalupito (G-112) (Figure
1).

The data discussed in this paper was collected during the excavations conducted within
the framework of two archaeological projects directed by Dr. Claude Chapdelaine from
the Université de Montréal. Between 1995 and 2000, the urban sector of the Moche site
 2

was the subject of the Zona Urbana Moche (ZUM) research project (Chapdelaine 1997;
2001; 2002; 2003) integrated in the context of a large-scale Peruvian investigation
program affiliated with the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (Uceda et al 1997; 1998;
2000; Uceda and Mujica 1994; 2003). Between 2000 and 2002, the Projet Santa de
l’Université de Montréal (PSUM) aimed to understand the nature of the Moche presence
and conquest in the Santa Valley (Chapdelaine and Pimentel 2001; 2002; Chapdelaine et
al 2003)

The use of body ornaments in the Moche and Santa Valleys

Moche body ornaments show a great diversity of shapes, materials, and of the wealth
they express. They can be categorized into five general types: headdresses, earspools,
nose ornaments, textiles adorned with metal platelets, and necklaces made of small beads
or pendants (Figure 2) (Alva 1994; 2001; Bernier 1999: 8-10).

Necklace pieces strongly predominate the ornament collections from domestic contexts
of the Moche and Santa Valleys. They are found in many architectural compounds
excavated, on habitation floors, inside architectural fills and domestic midden deposits.
Their domestic distribution indicates that they were commonly used and integrated to the
daily life of the communities. Most of the beads and pendants are crafted in modest
materials, either carved in a steatite-like local stone or made of molded or hand shaped
ceramic. Complete necklaces were also found among the funerary offerings of
individuals buried within domestic compounds of the Moche site’s urban sector.
Necklaces found in burial contexts are generally made of small geometric beads and
demonstrate a greater variety of materials, including steatite, ceramic, turquoise, sodalite,
spondylus princeps, and other unidentified white shells (Figure 3) (Donnan and Mackey
1978; Bernier 1999: 47; Chapdelaine et al 2000: 123, 138; Bernier 2001: 197; Victor
Vasquez, unpublished field analysis).

Symbolism of figurative body ornaments

Some beads and most of the pendants represent figurative elements. Images depicted by
these necklace pieces are generally recurrent and clearly inspired from the Moche
 3

mythological universe abundantly illustrated on ritual ceramics. This thematic relation

indicates that the figurative ornaments possess a symbolic value and convey a precise
meaning. Artisans did not draw on their personal imagination in order to create beads and
pendants, but rather on a collective system of images largely spread and shared by the
population. Symbols represented through ornaments thus responded to specific stylistic
codes. However, the living beings, plants or objects depicted by the beads and pendants
are isolated three-dimensional elements. They do not interact with other figurative
elements in order to form elaborate significant scenes comparable to the complex scenes
painted on ceramic jars and bottles. The symbolic meaning of ornaments should therefore
be inferred from a comparison with the complex painted or sculpted iconographic
representations in which similar elements appear. It must also be kept in mind that
ornaments are part of a larger combination of significant body attributes, including
coiffure, clothing, tattooing and body painting, that should be considered as a whole.

Among the great variety of images depicted by the necklace pieces of Moche and Santa,
the most common elements are either phytomorphic (beans, peanuts, ulluchus, maize
grains and other seeds), zoomorphic (fish), anthropomorphic (warriors, feminine
figurines, and body parts), or objects (miniature ceramic vessels).

The bean-shaped pendants of the Moche and Santa Valleys are life-size and sometimes
bear engraved geometric patterns similar to those present in painted scenes (Figure 4). In
iconographic context, beans are either represented by means of sculpted ceramics or
integrated in numerous complex scenes. They appear in ritual running scenes as
anthropomorphic characters taking the place of the runners, or as background elements
between them (Hocquenghem 1987: Figs. 52-56, 202-204; Donnan and Mc Clelland
1999: 128-129). In battle or procession scenes, warriors sometimes take the shape of
beans carrying shields and weapon bundles. Beans also take a central role in “bean and
stick ceremony” scenes, considered at once as a game integrated into the funerary ritual
(Arsenault 1987: 118) and as a divinatory activity related to the agricultural calendar
(Hocquenghem 1987: 147-150) or related to war operations (Bourget 1989: 98).
 4

The pendants in the shape of peanuts are realistic copies produced with molds, which
were made by taking the negative print of the real fruit (Figure 5). In iconography,
peanuts often appear as hybrid creatures like musicians playing flute or skeletal figures
(Bourget 1994: 105). They are also presented under their natural aspect, in stacked gourd
plates filled with food (Donnan 1978: 178). In painted scenes, these gourd plates are
associated with feasts, offerings, burials, and funerary rituals (Figure 6) (Arsenault 1992:
51).

The plant called ulluchu generated many discussions concerning its botanical
identification (Mc Clelland 1977: 435). It is now generally admitted that images of
ulluchus represent a species of edible fruit from the papaya family with anticoagulant
properties probably known by the Moche (Wassén 1987). Pendants in the shape of
ulluchus discovered in Moche and Santa are accurate miniature imitations of the fruit
present in the background of many painted scenes or adorning headdresses of sculpted
figures (Figure 7). Ulluchus appear in iconographic complex themes related to human
sacrifice and blood, such as scenes depicting warrior battles, deer hunts, and
presentations of the sacrificial cup (Donnan 1978: 158-167). The fruit was probably an
integral part of the religious ceremonies surrounding human sacrificial practices (Wassén
1987).

The identification of the exact object or species represented by the drop-shaped pendants
remains speculative due to the lack of precision involved in their making. However,
similar drop shapes actually represent maize grains in the iconographic scenes in which
they appear, like the scene interpreted as a preliminary stage in the preparation of chicha,
a maize beer consumed in funerary ritual and other religious circumstances (Figure 8)
(Arsenault 1992: 52). The maize motif is also present on the belts of runners in ritual
running scenes, along with other botanical themes (Hocquenghem 1987: Fig. 202).

The pendants in the shape of fish are carefully carved in stone or bone and often bear
incrustations. Since most of them do not show distinctive anatomical characteristics, it is
hard to determine if the artisans who made them always intended to represent a particular
 5

species among those depicted in painted iconography. However, some of the fish found at
the Moche site bear characteristics peculiar to the pez borracho associated with the
ancestor’s world and playing a central part in Moche religious system (Figure 9) (Bourget
1994: 160-163).

Many molded ceramic pendants represent miniature versions of the larger feminine
figurines omnipresent in domestic contexts of the Moche and Santa Valleys (Figure 10).
Although we still ignore the exact function of feminine figurines in the daily life of the
population, we suppose that they possess a certain symbolic value. The role of domestic
amulets employed in household rituals is the most plausible avenue. Perhaps figurines
also served as idols invoked during shamanic or magic activities, as they are used today
by modern folk healers (Joralemon and Sharon 1993 : 19-24; Limoges 1999 : 135-137).

Like many warriors represented in painted scenes, those depicted through molded
ceramic pendants discovered in Moche and Santa share two characteristics: the conical
helmet and the club held on the shoulder. Some stone pendants also represent the club
alone (Figure 11). It is now generally admitted that warriors and combat scenes illustrated
in Moche iconography are related to the process of capture of prisoners destined to ritual
sacrifice. The Moche war was thus sporadic rather than endemic, and its perception was
ideological more than expansionist (Shimada 1994: 368; Donnan 1997 : 59; Topic and
Topic 1997 : 12; Bourget 2001 : 92-93). .

Hands, arms, legs, and genitals are recognizable among the stone pendants representing
body parts (Figure 12). In painted iconography, such body parts appear as floating
elements in dismemberment scenes in which prisoners are intended to sacrifice (Moser
1974: 33; Donnan and McClelland 1999 : 121; Bourget 2001: 98). Other sculpted vessels
take the form of cut feet and legs (Figure 13) (Arsenault 1994: 287). Archaeological
discoveries showed that the bodies of some prisoners were actually dismembered during
sacrificial practices (Bourget 1997: 93; 2001: 97-99; Verano 2001 : 181). Articulated
body parts and bones were also used as funerary offerings, symbolizing the immortality
 6

of the body and acting as guides between the world of the living and the world of the
ancestors (Uceda 1997: 112; 1999 : 112).

Many pendants from Moche and Santa reproduce two types of ritual ceramic vessels
commonly used as funerary offerings: the jar and the stirrup spout bottle (Figure 14).
When made of clay, they are accurate miniature imitations of real vessels, sometimes
decorated with red and white slip or with the rope motif around the neck, representing the
rope tied around the neck of a prisoner destined to sacrifice.

Production of body ornaments

Archaeological data from Moche and Santa prove that common ornaments like necklaces
were produced locally in both valleys. In Santa, stone and shell blanks were found in five
sites including Guadalupito, Hacienda San José and El Castillo. Flawed ceramic beads
and complete molds destined to the manufacture of ceramic pendants were found at
Hacianda San-José and Guad-88, a ceramic production locus near El Castillo (Figure 15).
These sites are also characterized by high concentrations of ceramic by-products and
manufacturing tools (Chapdelaine and Pimentel 2002: 30; Chapdelaine et al 2003: 8).
However, even if in-situ production of ornaments is attested in the Santa Valley, evidence
is still insufficient to prove a large-scale and permanent manufacture.

Specialized production of ceramic ornaments is documented at the Moche site. A

workshop dedicated to the manufacture of ceramic non-utilitarian objects was discovered
and partially excavated by Peruvian teams. This working area extends vertically on three
occupational floors where kilns, tools, molds, and wasters were found. The production of
ornaments in the workshop is attested by the discovery of numerous complete pendants
and corresponding molds (Uceda and Armas 1998).

Since the manufacture of stone ornaments necessitate no permanent installation,

archaeological evidence of specialized stone working is essentially composed of
concentrations of small objects abandoned by the artisans, like tools, blanks, cutting
debris, and ornaments broken in the process of manufacture. Two domestic workshops
 7

dedicated to the specialized production of stone ornaments were discovered and

excavated in the Moche site’s urban sector. The largest one was found in architectural
compound # 12. This specialized workshop covers thirty square meters and extends
vertically on three occupations. Stone, blanks, cutting debris, and tools like polishers,
blades and copper awls were found in great concentrations inside the working area
(Figure 16). Steatite-like local stone and quartz crystals were used by the artisans of
compound # 12 to make beads and pendants (Figure 17) (Chapdelaine et al 1999: 132-
136). Turquoise was also used in the crafting of small beads and inlays.

Discussion
The great number and the omnipresence of ceramic and stone necklace pieces found in
domestic contexts suggest that the population of the Moche and Santa Valleys used
ornaments in daily life. However, the apparent banality of common ornaments hides an
important thematic relation between the figurative images they represent and the themes
expressed by the religious iconography.

The figurative themes depicted by the beads and pendants are symbolically related to
various religious themes. They indicate that the occupants of the Moche site’s urban
sector, as well as those of the Moche III elite center El Castillo, the Moche IV colony
Hacienda San José and the new capital Guadalupito in Santa, were actively participating
in the Moche belief system. They possessed the privilege to display their social and
ethnic identity with a variety of symbolic attributes. People worn on their bodies images
revealing their ideology, drawn from a representation system widely spread and shared
on a large territorial scale, coming from the Moche motherland and established in new
conquered territories.

Ornaments made of stone or molded ceramic were crafted by specialists at the Moche
site, as indicated by the urban workshops excavated to date between the two monumental
buildings. The production of such ornaments was at least partially supervised by the
ruling elite. If the artisans were not directly subjected to stylistic requirements imposed
by the state’s authority, we can propose that the state exercised some control over the
 8

body ornamentation by means of an ideological influence. Various ornaments were also

produced in the Santa Valley.

Conclusion
According to the vision of Chapdelaine (Chapdelaine: this symposium; Chapdelaine et al
2003: 54-56), the appropriation and dominance of the Santa Valley by the Moche elite
was the result of a gradual process. If battles and warfare played a role in the Moche
expansion to the south, other gradual tactics had a great and decisive importance :
diplomatic and economic alliances, population movements sponsored by the state,
political conciliations, and ideological influence.

Among the strategies employed by the Moche ruling elite in order to execute the gradual
assimilation of the Santa Valley population, the manipulation of ideology was crucial and
stimulated by its diffusion with the help of many symbols recognizable by the population.
Such symbols include mural painting, public ritual and evocative objects, among which
are body ornaments. By encouraging and controlling the creation, the production, and the
distribution of such symbols, the elite was able to forge a political, economical, and
above all ideological power (Bawden 1995). Movable material symbols, such as
ceramics, musical instruments and ornaments, were particularly widespread among the
population of the Santa Valley’s major Moche centers (Figure 17).

Body ornaments were worn to display status, social roles, and identities. Through
particular styles of body decoration, the members of the Moche site’s population, as well
as the first migrants and later colonists of the Santa Valley, expressed their belonging to
the Moche cultural system and participated to the diffusion of its dominant ideology.
 9

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 14

Figures

Figure 1 Map of the north coast of Peru showing the sites mentioned in text.

Figure 2 Moche ornaments: a. bracelet; b. nose ornament; c. earspools; d. metallic

headdress piece (taken from Alva 1994).

Figure 3 Geometric beads from the Moche site.

Figure 4 Pendants in the shape of beans and detail of a complex painted scene
representing “bean warriors” (taken from Donnan and McClelland 1999).

Figure 5 Pendants in the shape of peanuts and stirrup spout bottle representing an
anthropomorphized peanut (taken from Larco Hoyle 2001).

Figure 6 Jar representing two superimposed gourd plates filled with peanuts (from
the site Hacienda San José, PSUM) and drawing of gourd plates integrated
in a complex painted scene (taken from Donnan and McClelland 1999).

Figure 7 Pendants in the shape of ulluchus and drawings representing ulluchus

integrated in a complex painted scene (taken from Donnan and
McClelland 1999)

Figure 8 Drop shaped pendants and similar shapes in a chicha preparation painted
scene (taken from Arsenault 1992).

Figure 9 Pendants in the shape of fish and details from complex painted scenes
representing the pez borracho (taken from Bourget 1994).

Figure 10 Pendants in the shape of feminine figurines and a ceramic figurine (from
the site Hacienda San José, PSUM).

Figure 11 Pendants in the shape of a warrior and war clubs, and warriors integrated
in a complex painted scene (taken from Donnan 1978).

Figure 12 Pendants in the shape of body parts.

Figure 13 Dismemberment scene (taken from Moser 1994) and stirrup spout bottle
representing a cut leg (taken from Larco Hoyle 2001).

Figure 14 Pendants representing ceramic jars.

Figure 15 Artefacts discovered in the Santa Valley (PSUM): a. pendant molds from
the site Hacienda San José; b. flawed ceramic ornaments and mold from
the site G-88.
 15

Figure 16 Material evidence of stone ornament production from the workshop of

compound # 12, Moche site (ZUM): turquoise inlays, cutting debris,
polisher and stone blades.

Figure 17 Jar and pendant representing the step motif discovered in the Santa Valley,
sector El Castillo (PSUM).