By Alan Yuhas
Archaeologists in Peru have excavated a monumental chamber featuring elaborate murals of snakes, and a pillared hall with a worn throne, which they say bears clues suggesting a powerful woman ruled there more than 1,300 years ago.
The site, Pañamarca, was a religious and political center for the ancient Moche culture, which flourished for centuries in northern Peru, building grand structures and irrigating deserts long before the Inca rose and conquered the Andes.
The latest findings, reported by a team of researchers late last month, provide new insight into Moche ceremonies and mythology, and add to growing evidence that women held positions of power in Moche society, in contrast to long-held perceptions of a culture dominated by male warriors and kings.
“There are several things that are very important regarding this wonderful discovery,” said Gabriela Cervantes Quequezana, an archaeologist not involved in the excavations. “We’ve seen other representations of women in tombs, but not in the depth and complexity in the discoveries in Pañamarca.”
The throne room is decorated with paintings that depict a woman seated on a similar throne and receiving visitors, as well as images of a crown, the crescent moon, sea creatures and a weaving workshop. The throne itself, which was built around A.D. 650, shows erosion on the backrest, suggesting the wear of a person sitting there, and the researchers found colorful stones and human hair embedded in it.
“It’s very unusual for us to see the crowned woman seated on a throne inside a building holding court,” said Lisa Trever, a professor of art history and archaeology at Columbia University in New York City and one of the Pañamarca researchers. “I think we can say with some certainty that, regardless of who actually sat there, it was a throne for a queen, the throne for a woman.”
In recent years, archaeologists have found signs of powerful women at other Moche sites north of Pañamarca, which lies near the Pacific coast about 250 miles north of Peru’s capital, Lima.
A tomb excavated in 2006 contained the remains of the so-called Lady of Cao, a tattooed woman surrounded by war clubs and tools for throwing spears. Several rich tombs found at another site in 2013 held the bodies of women who have often been called the priestesses of San José de Moro.
“We’ve had so far a very masculine view of the Moche world,” said Cervantes, who works at the National University of San Marcos in Lima. “But with this discovery in Pañamarca, even though there’s not a tomb per se of a queen, we have a female character. She’s been called a priestess, but we can also think of her as a powerful woman in terms of political power.”
The archaeologists at Pañamarca intend to study the hair to learn more about the life of the person it belonged to, though they are unsure if they have enough material to perform a full DNA analysis.
The Moche did not have a system of writing, and many sites were looted over the centuries, making artwork that survives especially important for archaeologists trying to understand the society.
Murals dominate the other chamber found by the archaeologists, which they call the Hall of the Braided Serpents. The structure, also built with wide pillars, overlooked a plaza and was decorated with expansive paintings that show large serpents with human legs, as well as warriors and a mythical creature.
The hall was remarkable both for its motif, which the researchers called unique for Moche art, but also for its large scale, said Michele Koons, one of the Pañamarca researchers and the director of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
“These are life-size serpents — human size — and also in this particular room we have a mural of a Moche monster chasing a guy,” she said. “It’s a very different scale from the other space.”
The murals would have been seen from below during ceremonies or events, she added, creating a far different effect than the “intimate” space of the throne room.
The artwork in both rooms could tell archaeologists much more about Moche beliefs and rituals, said Gabriel Prieto, a professor of anthropology at the University of Florida who was not involved in the research.
“All of these murals are opening new windows to understanding Moche ceremonies in big temples, and the role played by women but not only the queen,” he said. “For many years we thought the most important celebrations or ceremonies that was hosted in these large areas were related to human sacrifice, but with these discoveries, the artists have depicted very different ceremonies.”
Prieto noted that Moche sites were distinct from each other, reflecting change in culture over different places and eras: “Pañamarca is like the Sistine Chapel in Rome, but if you go to the Holy Land, you won’t see that kind of art.”
But he expressed excitement over the Pañamarca team’s continued work.
“The main pyramid hasn’t really been touched yet by Trever’s team,” he said. “I’m just wondering what kind of unbelievable discoveries will be made in the near future.”
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