Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1978 - 37

a littoral, aquatic composition. The
anthropomorphic figures wear masks and seem
to carry gear associated with the procurement of
marine or riverine prey whether fish or fowl,
and the central figure appears to symbolize the
recipient deity; the filler elements and the upper
sections exclusive of the deity similarly represent
a wajer-life motif.

T he closest counterparts to the Pintada frieze
are later low reliefs dating from the end of the
Middle Horizon period. Earliest in time, though
not necessarily closest iconographically, are a few
fragmentary carved panels found at Chotuna, in
nearby Lambayeque, and Huaca El Dragon in
the Moche valley some hundred miles to the
south. In both temples, the principal central
figure is missing, but the maritime, avian and
nonterrestrial aspects of the environment and
the processional profile figures are roughly
analogous. Excavation of the Huaca El Dragon
revealed that it was once a depository for
strombus and spondylitis shells which were
reworked at the site into inlay for ceremonial
wdbden idols. The iconography of the Dragon
reliefs is infinitely more complex and quite likely
represents calendrical ordering and a wider
cosmogony-pantheon than the more fragmentary
Brüning frieze. No artifacts which would reveal
any specific function have been recovered from
the smaller temple of the Huaca Chotuna
complex. The latest example dating to late
prehispanic times of an analogous aquatic frieze
is also a low-relief done in the "champleve"
technique on the walls of the Velarde
compound, one of the eleven citadels of Chan
Chan in Peru. In this case, the wavy band motif
enclosing aquatic forms is closer to the overall
design in the Brüning frieze as are the
beak-masked anthropomorphs who form the
procession. A repetitive front-faced central
figure flanked by two beak-masked staff-bearers
also correspond generally to the central portion
of the Huaca Pintada mural.
However spotty this view of North Coast
mural decoration with maritime iconography
might appear, it is clear that a religious
continuum existed from about a.d. 500 through
1500, a fact consistently supported by the sparse
ethnohistoric record. Throughout this period,
the North Coast people, however tribalized into
shifting polities, were ethnically homogeneous.

Part of that common ethnic heritage was a
shared dependence on maritime ecosystems and
a shared reverence for the perceived deities who
guaranteed their equilibrium. It is not surprising
that they would resent the imposition of a
sun-worshipping religion which was introduced
by the Inca highlanders. What we rather dimly
perceive in this chronological array of murals
from the Mochica region of the Peruvian north
coast, rather than a succession of distinct cultural
expressions, is a basic pattern expressed in
various media and with different emphases,
altered by the technology and the internal
socio-political changes of a millennium.
For Further Reading: Wendell C. Bennett,
"Archaeology of the North Coast of Peru: An
Account of Exploration and Excavation in Viru
and Lambayeque Valleys," Anthropological Papers ,
volume 37, part I, American Museum of Natural
History (New York 1939); Duccio Bonavia,
Ricchata Quellccani. Pinturas múreles prehispanicas
* (Lima 1974), a comprehensive look at Peruvian
polychrome murals, including the three
discussed in this article; Enrique (Hans Heinrich)
Brüning, "Provincia de Lambayeque: contribución
arquelogica," Boletín de la sociedad geografica de
Lima 32 (1917): 197-201; Rebecca Carrion
Cachot, "La luna y su personificación
ornitomorfa en el arte Chimu," XXVII Congreso
Internacional de Americanistas 2 (Lima 1940):
571-587; Christopher B. Donnan,
"Mochica-Huari murals from Northern Peru,"
Archaeology
2 (1972): 85-95, a publication of
the Facho murals found by James Ford, and
Donnan, Mochica Art and Iconography (Los
Angeles 1976), an attempt to decode Mochica
iconography; Augusto D. Léon-Barandiarán,
Mitos leyendasy tradiciones lambayecanas (Lima
1938), publication of the Huaca Pintada myth;
Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco,
"Urpayhuachac y el 'Simbolo del Ma,"
Arqueologia Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru
14 (1973) ; John Howland Rowe, "A New
Pottery Style from the Department of Piura,
Peru," Notes on Middle American Archaeologyand
Ethnology 1 (1942): 30-34; Richard P. Schaedel,
"Major Ceremonial and Population Centers in
Northern Peru," Proceedings of the Twenty-ninth
Congress of Americanista 1 (1951): 232-243;
"Highlights of Andean Archaeology,"
Archaeology
2 (1957): 93-99; "The Huaca el
Dragon," fournal de la Société des Americanistes 2
(1966): 383-496.
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Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1978

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