Product Description

Perus ancient Moche culture is represented in a magnificent collection of artifacts at Harvards Peabody Museum. In this richly illustrated volume, Jeffrey Quilter presents a fascinating introduction to this intriguing culture and explores current thinking about Moche politics, history, society, and religion. Quilter utilizes the Peabodys collection as a means to investigate how the Moche used various media, particularly ceramics, to convey messages about their lives and beliefs. His presentation provides a critical examination and rethinking of many of the commonly held interpretations of Moche artifacts and their imagery, raising important issues of art production and its role in ancient and modern societies. The most up-to-date monograph available on the Mocheand the first extensive discussion of the Peabody Museums collection of Moche ceramicsthis volume provides an introduction for the general reader and contributes to ongoing scholarly discussions. Quilters fresh reading of Moche visual imagery raises new questions about the art and culture of ancient Peru.