Huaca de la Luna

Museum at the excavation site

The Huaca de la Luna ( Temple of the Moon ) is a pyramid made of air-dried adobe bricks in the Moche valley in northern Peru near Trujillo .

Surname

Huaca is a generic term for any sanctuary , includingburial placesin the Andes . Likewise, peculiar or special places (springs, unusual trees, rocks, etc.) and beings (such as overgrown fruits, tubers or animals, but also pairs of twins) were referred to as huaca .

Location and description

The Huaca de la Luna is located approx. 5 km from the city center of Trujillo at the foot of the Cerro Blanco and, together with the opposite sun pyramid (Huaca del sol), formed the capital of the Moche culture. It is smaller than the pyramid of the sun and is about 500 m away from it. In the space between the pyramids there was a so-called urban zone with residential and burial places. Whether its residents formed a socially differentiated population or belonged solely to the administrative and religious elite is controversial.

The lunar pyramid is about 21 m high and takes up an area of about 80 × 60 m. The walls of the step-shaped pyramid are decorated with colored reliefs. The top platform was reached by a ramp. During the excavation work, four different construction phases have been identified so far (from the 3rd to the 8th century AD), with the old pyramid being built over with a new, higher one.

Wall paintings and friezes

Deity "Aiapaec"

Wall painting: Possibly a calendar

The Huaca de la Luna is best known for its colored wall paintings , friezes and reliefs made of adobe. They show the main deity "Aiapaec" (also "Ayapec") and other gods as anthropomorphic beings as well as mythical scenes and ceremonies. The meanings of these complex images are largely unclear. Some representations are similar to those in another important Moche ceremonial center , in the Huaca del Brujo in the Chicama Valley north of Trujillo. A wall painting was discovered at the foot of the pyramid, possibly showing a calendar.

Ceremonies

It is now considered certain that the pyramid was the scene of ceremonies. A priest-king received a cup of human blood on a small covered platform at the top of the pyramid, in order, according to the Moche belief, to nourish the deities and to maintain the cycle of life. Some researchers believe that the people who were sacrificed were prisoners of war, others consider it possible that they were chosen from their own people. Ceremonies were also held when the " El Niño " phenomenon threatened life on the coast.

literature

Véronique Wright: Étude de la polychromie des reliefs sur terre crue de la Huaca de la Luna Trujillo, Pérou . Archaeopress, Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-1-407-30295-9 .

Individual evidence

↑ Miloslav Stingl: In the footsteps of the oldest empires of Peru . Urania-Verlag, 1990, ISBN 3-332-00363-1 , p. 141-144 .
^ Walter Alva: Sipan - Discovery and research . Peru, 2003, p. 8-11 .
↑ Jeffrey Quilter: The Treasures of the Andes - The Splendor of the Inca Age and Pre-Columbian South America . Frederking and Thaler Verlag GmbH Munich, 2005, ISBN 3-89405-497-2 , p. 78-87 .

Web links

Commons : Huaca de la Luna - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Patronage of Huacas in the Mochetal (Spanish and English)

-8.135 -78.991388888889Coordinates: 8 ° 8 ′ 6 ″ S , 78 ° 59 ′ 29 ″ W

[1] Miloslav Stingl: In the footsteps of the oldest empires of Peru . Urania-Verlag, 1990, ISBN 3-332-00363-1 , p. 141-144 .

[2] Walter Alva: Sipan - Discovery and research . Peru, 2003, p. 8-11 .

[3] Jeffrey Quilter: The Treasures of the Andes - The Splendor of the Inca Age and Pre-Columbian South America . Frederking and Thaler Verlag GmbH Munich, 2005, ISBN 3-89405-497-2 , p. 78-87 .