Considerable time changes are represented in Chavín pottery; for example, the earliest stirrup spouts were relatively small and very thick and heavy, and the spout had a thick flange. As time went on, the stirrups became lighter and the spouts longer; the flange was reduced and finally disappeared. The necks of the flasks underwent similar changes. The decoration on some of these is extremely striking; one has incised flower designs, and another has a roughened surface in which there are a number of concave circular depressions with a notably high polish. The Cupisnique stirrup-spouted vessels, some of which were modeled in the form of human beings, animals, or fruits, were the beginning of a north-coast tradition of naturalistic modeling, which persisted throughout its history. Toward the end of the period, a bichrome (dark red on cream) pottery came into use.
There is a considerable area on the south Peruvian coast with its focus in the Ica Valley, where strong influences from Chavín have been found in the Paracas pottery style, and two painted textiles in pure Chavín style have survived from the same valley. Paracas pottery was very different from that of Chavín, but various motifs have enabled the two to be correlated closely. Paracas began at practically the same time as Chavín, about 1000 bc, and lasted throughout its span and beyond it, perhaps to about 200 bc. The most characteristic form of Paracas pottery was a closed globular vessel with a somewhat flattened base, which had two narrow spouts connected by a flat bridge, or more frequently, with one spout replaced by a human or bird head. Simple round-based bowls were very common. The ware was most commonly black or very dark brownish, and much of the surface was covered with decoration outlined by incision and painted in polychrome with hard, shiny, resinous colours after firing. A panel bearing a feline face on one end of a spout-and-bridge vessel was one of the most frequent forms of decoration. Paracas is also distinguished for its gorgeous embroidered textiles, generally found in the mummy bundles of the important dead. Embroidery had a popularity at this time that it afterward lost, but a surprisingly wide range of weaving techniques were also used in various parts of the coast. The Early Intermediate period
The Early Horizon was succeeded by what has been termed the Early Intermediate Period. The onset of the Early Intermediate marked the decline of Chavín’s cultural influence and the attainment of artistic and technological peaks in a number of centres, both on the coast and in the highlands. The southern coast
The beginning of the period is best determined by the evolution of the Paracas pottery style into that of the Nazca (Nasca) area on the southern coast; this is traditionally estimated to have occurred about 200 bc, but Rowe’s date of 400 bc is probably more reliable, since this is the area where his detailed succession was worked out. Nazca ware is marked by the introduction of slip painting applied before firing, which took the place of the resin painting applied afterward; but the style evolved continuously, and the polychrome tradition continued. The most common forms were bowls and beakers, all with rounded bases, but double-spout or head-and-spout jars were also characteristic. In contrast to the Moche area on the northern coast, figure modeling played a very minor role. Designs were painted in up to eight colours and fell into two main groups: one characterized by stylized but recognizable life forms, such as birds, fish, or fruits, with some humans; the other depicting mythical subjects such as complex demons. Between approximately middle and late Nazca, mythical figures became increasingly angular and elongated and developed a tangled mass of appendages. Trophy-head representations, which were modeled as complete vessels as well as painted in profile on simple vessels, increased greatly at the same time. Because Nazca art was less realistic than that of Moche, little can be learned of the appearance and life of the people.
In the time of the Nazca style what has been described as a small city was located in each of the south-coast valleys of Pisco, Ica, Nazca, and Acarí. At Cahuachi, in Nazca, this included a ceremonial centre consisting of six pyramids, which were terraced and adobe-faced natural hills associated with courts. Tambo Viejo in Acarí was fortified, which supports inferences drawn with some difficulty from late Nazca art that a concern with warfare developed at that time. The northern coast
A cultural peak was reached in the valleys of Pacasmayo, Chicama, and Moche on the northern Peruvian coast. A large proportion of this area has been grouped by archaeologists into a Moche culture, although some of the territory encompassed by these valleys was not part of the polity called Moche. The Japanese archaeologist Izumi Shimada has referred to this kind of control as “horizontally discontinuous territoriality.” The coast–highland “vertical” type of polity described above appears to have emerged later in coastal history. Thus, this “horizontal discontinuity” may have been related to coastal trade, as products were sought north of the desert coast, while at a later time it may have coexisted with “verticality.”
The Moche culture is distinguished by a ceremonial pottery style, commonly covered with a white or red-and-white slip, which may have had decoration painted on it, chiefly in red on the white parts. Some pots are molded in forms that include figures, animals, plants, and weapons; and some have molded designs in low relief. Molding and painting both convey highly realistic impressions of the people, things, and scenes they represent and are a vivid source of information about the life and activities of the people, though some important aspects, such as agricultural processes, are not represented. Moche pottery has been divided into five phases that were originally defined mainly by differences in the stirrup-spouted jars, but this has been extended to other forms—for example, bell-shaped bowls, double vessels, and jars with collars. The prevalence of stirrup spouts and the quality of the modeling connect Moche much more closely with Chavín–Cupisnique than with the intermediate styles, in which features such as the spout-and-bridge vessels suggest intrusive influences from the south. Among Moche buildings are adobe pyramids, like the enormous Huaca del Sol in the Moche Valley, palaces with large rooms (on terraces in the case of the Huaca de la Luna near the Sol), and fortified structures perched on the sides of valleys. These structures reinforce the evidence, provided by warriors and enthroned dignitaries depicted on pots, for the existence of an aggressive hierarchical state, and it may be inferred that this grew up as the result of dependence on highly developed irrigation systems in the restricted areas available in the valleys.
Mask of copper and gold alloy with eyes of shell, found in the Huaca de la Luna, Moche River valley, c. 400 bc–ad 600; in the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany.Ferdinand Anton
There were no towns in the northern valleys. Dispersed communities, built in places where they would not use the valuable irrigated agricultural lands, seem to have been situated in ways suggesting dependence on one of the ceremonial centres. The north highlands