Archaeologists excavating an ancient ceremonial complex in northern Peru have discovered ulluchu seeds, ten painted clay faces and unusual ceramics associated with ritual practices of the Moche culture.
The discoveries were made at Huaca Santa Ana, an archaeological site at El Chaparral in the Chicama Valley, La Libertad region, as part of a long-running research project led by archaeologists Belkys Gutiérrez León and Segundo Vásquez Sánchez.
The Moche flourished along the northern coast of Peru between approximately the 1st and 8th centuries AD, constructing monumental ceremonial centres and producing highly sophisticated ceramics, metalwork and figurative art.
Among the discoveries at Huaca Santa Ana are preserved samples identified as ulluchu, a fruit repeatedly represented in Moche iconography and sometimes associated with scenes involving ritual bloodletting and sacrifice.
Researchers have proposed that the plant may possess anticoagulant properties, potentially explaining its appearance within ceremonial contexts involving blood.
“These samples of these seeds are anticoagulants. If the Moche people performed their ceremonies with blood drawn without applying this anticoagulant, it would obviously become dry or thick,” Gutiérrez León told RPP.
“This seed prevented it from coagulating, allowing it to remain liquid. All of this here is part of Moche rituals.”
Archaeological examples of ulluchu have previously been reported from sites including Huaca Dos Cabezas and Sipán, although Gutiérrez León said earlier physical evidence of the fruit was subsequently lost.
The newly recovered specimens therefore provide researchers with an opportunity to investigate the identification and properties of the plant using modern analytical techniques.
Samples will be sent to France for specialist analysis to determine their phytochemical composition and botanical identification, as well as potentially establishing their geographical origin.
Another unusual discovery consists of ten human faces modelled from clay and decorated with paint.
Each displays differences in facial morphology, including variations in the eyes and noses, while several are depicted with distinctive ear ornaments.
According to Gutiérrez León, no comparable group of painted clay faces has previously been documented within the known archaeological record of the Moche culture.
“These faces are a unique find; no other discovery of human faces made of clay and painted has been reported for the Moche culture,” she said.
Researchers hope further examination of the objects will provide information about Moche artistic production, manufacturing techniques and approaches to representing individual human features.
Excavations have also uncovered two ceremonial ceramic objects depicting food.
One represents ears of maize, while another depicts guinea pigs pierced with wooden rods, apparently showing the animals prepared for consumption.
“What’s interesting about this is that each guinea pig is pierced by a stick. It’s like a fried guinea pig,” Gutiérrez León explained.
Food imagery frequently formed part of the wider visual and ceremonial vocabulary of ancient Andean societies. The newly discovered objects could therefore provide further evidence for how agricultural produce and animals were represented within Moche ritual contexts.
The discoveries form part of more than two decades of archaeological research in the Chicama Valley.
Investigations have recently expanded beyond Huaca Santa Ana to include the archaeological sites of Garrapón and Licapa II, where researchers are attempting to reconstruct the early development of Moche society.
The wider project is also examining the sociopolitical and territorial organisation of communities occupying the Chicama Valley, allowing artefacts recovered from individual ceremonial centres to be studied within the broader archaeological landscape.
Further analysis of the ulluchu samples and associated artefacts is expected to provide new evidence concerning ceremonial activities at Huaca Santa Ana and the role that plants, food and human imagery played within Moche ritual practices.
Sources : infobae
