Trever Et Al Escudo Pañamarca ÑawpaPacha

8/10/2019 Trever Et Al Escudo Paamarca awpaPacha

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A MOCHE FEATHERED SHIELD FROM THE PAINTED TEMPLES OFPAAMARCA, PERU

Lisa Trever, Jorge Gamboa Velsquez, Ricardo Toribio Rodrguez, Flannery Surette

We report upon the uniquending of a Moche feathered shield at Paamarca, Nepea Valley, Peru. The artifact wasexcavated in 2010 from an offering context adjacent to two mural paintingsrst documented in 1950. Althoughshields are among the most frequent motifs in Moche iconography, very few examples are found archaeologically orin museum collections. We describe the form and materials of the Paamarca shield and discuss its placementwithin the huacas architectural sequence. This shield would have offered little real protection in battle; rather, itserved as one of the paramount symbols in Moche art and ritual practice.

Se presenta el hallazgo nico de un escudo Moche con plumera procedente de Paamarca, Valle de Nepea, Per. Esteartefacto fue excavado en 2010, siendo registrado en posicin invertida como ofrenda adyacente a un grupo de pinturasmurales documentadas originalmente en 1950. Aunque los escudos se encuentran entre los motivos ms frecuentes de laiconografa Moche, muy pocos ejemplares han sido encontrados en sitios arqueolgicos o museos. El escudo dePaamarcacompuesto de cestera espiral con un diseo ornamental formado por textiles y plumases relevantepara los estudios de la ideologa Moche al brindar una serie de datos hasta ahora poco conocidos sobre la tecnologade elaboracin y signicado de este tipo de objetos. El escudo de Paamarca habra ofrecido escasa proteccin encombate, funcionando ms bien como un smbolo sobresaliente del arte y la prctica ritual Moche.

awpa Pacha, Journal of Andean Archaeology, Volume 33, Number 1, pp. 103118. Copyright # 2013 Institute of Andean Studies. All rights reserved.

Lisa Trever,Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138,

[email protected] Gamboa Velsquez,Universidad Nacional Santiago Antnez de Mayolo, Ciudad Universitaria, Shancayn, Huaraz,Peru,[email protected]

Ricardo Toribio Rodrguez, Proyecto Especial Complejo Arqueolgico Chan Chan, Jr. Torre Tagle No. 178, Urb. SanAndrs, Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru,[email protected]

Flannery Surette, Department of Anthropology, Social Science Centre, The University of Western Ontario, London,Ontario, N6A 5C2, Canada,[email protected]

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In what follows we present a remarkable object exca-vated within the monumental core of the ancientMoche site of Paamarca in 2010 (Figure 1).1 The

artifact is a small shield (25 cm in diameter) that con-

sists of a round basketry base covered on its face withtextiles and decorated with yellow feathers (Figures 2

and 3). Along with war clubs and other arms and

military accouterments, decorated shields are often

depicted in Moche iconography; however, just a few

examples of actual Moche shields have been excavated

by archaeologists and to date we are unaware of

comparative objects in museum collections. The

Paamarca shield thus appears unique in its form,

materials, and scale.

What makes this nd even more signicant is the

context within which the shield was discovered.Unlike the other known Moche shields, the

Paamarca example does not come from a funerary

context. Rather, it had been deposited in close proxi-

mity to two Moche mural paintings (Murals B and

D) that adorned a niche-like space within the sites

Platform II temple complex. The shield seems tohave been left as an offering that preceded a renova-

tion of the painted temple during the late Moche

period (c.600850 C.E.).2 With that renovation thewall paintings were sealed and buried by the new con-

struction. The two mural paintings associated with the

shield were rst documented by Richard Schaedel in

1950 (1951). Duccio Bonavia subsequently lamented

Figure 2. The Moche feathered shield excavated at Paamarca(diameter: 25 cm).

Figure 3. The reverse of the Paamarca shield.

Figure 1. Map of the north coast of Peru showing the locationsof the archaeological sites discussed in the text.

awpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology Volume 33, Number 1

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that these muralslike most others at the sitewere, to

his knowledge, entirely destroyed (1985, 2002). Our

research demonstrates that signicant remains of the

paintings, as well as their archaeological contexts,

remain intact. In fact, we recovered the shield fromthe very corner examined by Schaedel and visited later

by Bonavia, below a remaining layer of adobe architec-

tural ll, less than a meter below the 1950s surface level.

Paamarca, Moche Mural Painting,and the 2010 Field Project

The 2010 Paamarca eld project was designed to

investigate and comprehensively document the Moche

mural paintings that had been haphazardly exposed atthe site during the twentieth century. Despite

Paamarcas prominence as the southernmost Moche

monumental center, located in the lower valley of the

Nepea River in the Peruvian department of Ancash,

there had never before been a systematic program of

archaeological excavations at the site. Early accounts

and views of the site were published by E. George

Squier (1877) and Ernst W. Middendorf (1894) in

the late nineteenth century. Paamarca (PV3138)

was prominently included in the Nepea Valley archae-

ological survey carried out between 1967 and 1979 byDonald A. Proulx (1968, 1973, 1982, 1985), who

identied it as the largest Moche center in a valley

that was territorially divided at mid-valley between the

coastal Moche and the highland Recuay. The sites

mural paintings were rst recorded and illustrated by

Toribio Meja Xesspe for Julio C. Tello in 1934

(Tello 2005) and decades later by Schaedel (1951)

andBonavia (1959). With the notable exception of

Bonavias careful study of Mural E, which depicts a

portion of the Moche Presentation Theme or

Sacrice Ceremony (Donnan 1975), however, theadobe architecture that supported the sites paintings

has only been vaguely understood. A primary goal of

our research was thus to set Paamarcas published

paintings effectively back into their proper architectural

and spatial contexts.

With this objective to document what remained of

the muralseven if that was just the footprints of

painted wallsthe 2010 eld project opened seven

units of investigation within the monumental area of

Paamarca. Three excavation units were opened in

the Great Plaza to study the remains of Mural C;

another three units were placed in the looted-outcore of Platform II to explore what was left of Murals

A, B, D, and E; and one unit was opened in an area

to the west in order to study Mural F (Bonavia

1959,1974,1985;Schaedel 1951;Tello 2005).

Our project succeeded in locating and document-

ing remains of all of the previously known paintings

of Paamarca.3 What is more, we also discovered an

important new corpus of mural paintings at the site.

The new paintings include a robust program of

gural paintings found on the walls and broad

pillars of a previously unmapped structure that wenamed the Enclosure of the Painted Pillars

(Recinto de los Pilares Pintados). The iconography ofmost of these paintings seems to be directly related

to themes found on late Moche ceramics, but

others appear completely novel. The full results of

the eld project are forthcoming.4

Paamarca is remarkable among Moche sites in

that nearly every wall within its monumental center

seems to have been covered in at mural painting

depicting religious or mythological scenes and

events. The mural paintings of other Moche centerstend instead towards geometric designs and rep-

etitious les of supernatural or human gures.

Indeed, narrative mural painting is rare elsewhere in

the Moche world, with the exception of the so-

called Revolt of the Objectsmural and other paint-

ings recently found within the late Moche New

Temple at Huaca de la Luna (Uceda et al. 2011).

Yet, at Paamarca, narrative paintings are the norm.

We found no evidence of the technique of painted

relief that is so prominent at places like Huaca de la

Luna and Huaca Cao Viejo to the north (MujicaBarreda 2007;Uceda and Morales 2010). Instead, it

seems that the wall painters of Paamarca may have

been inspired by the smooth surfaces of ceramics or

theat spans ofgural tapestry. Indeed, the iconogra-

phy of the Paamarca murals is more similar to that

used in those portable media than it is to mural paint-

ings found at Moche centers elsewhere.

Trever et al.: A Moche feathered shield from the painted temples of Paamarca, Peru

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The Discovery of the PaamarcaFeathered Shield

The Unit 5 excavation that produced the Moche

feathered shield was programed to locate and recordthe remains of Paamarcas Murals B and D and

their associated architecture (Figure 4).5 In 1950,

Richard Schaedel rst observed these paintings,

which had presumably been exposed by looters at

the site. Both paintings were sketched by the late

painter Pedro Azabache (Kosok 1965: Figures 10a

and10b), who was born in the traditional village of

Moche and became one of the principal representa-

tives of the Peruvian Indigenista school of the twenti-

eth century. Each of these paintings studied by

Schaedel consisted of a single mythological gurethat is well known in Moche ceramic iconography

(Figure5). Mural B depicted the Strombus Monster

that exhibits both snail and feline features. This crea-

ture is often depicted in Moche neline ceramic

painting in combat with a hero-god who has come

to be known as Wrinkle Face, among many other

names in the scholarship.6

Mural D was a paintingof an anthropomorphic gure with bird headdress

and serrated tail that carries a bag on his hip and a

large shell in one hand. The painting had already suf-

fered much damage in 1950 (see Schaedel 1951:

Figure 12), which is apparent in the confusion in

Azabaches sketch where the gures face should

appear, beneath the bird headdress. Despite this

incomplete record, Krzysztof Makowski was able to

identify this gure with the Iguana attendant who

often accompanies the hero-god in ceramic iconogra-

phy (Bonavia and Makowski 1999: 50

51).Despite Bonavias pessimism that nothing

remained of these paintings, we planned to look for

some trace of the painted walls in order to better

understand their architectural context. The original

excavation unit measured 7 8 m, but our investi-

gation quickly narrowed in on the northern corner

of the unit where we succeeded in identifying the

architecture in question (Figure 6). There we

located the two walls (Muro 5 and Muro 6) that

together make up the painted corner studied by

Schaedel and later photographed by AbrahamGuilln (Bonavia and Makowski 1999: Figure 26).

These walls belong to the late phases of the

complex architectural sequence of Platform II.

Muro 5 (where we found the remains of Mural D)

predates Muro 6 (Mural B), although both were deco-

rated at the same time. The later wall was built to

close off the ramp that led up and into the southeast

of the platform (piso 2). With the closing of the ramp

a newoor was prepared to the southeast of Muro 6

(piso 1). After the ramp was closed, the northwest

face of Muro 6 and the southwest face of Muro 5were both painted with the images of the Strombus

Monster and the Iguana, respectively. Together with

a now-destroyed wall that faced Muro 5, these

painted walls formed a new niche-like space within

the temple complex.

Through the course of our excavation, we found

that less than half of the surface area of the paintings,

Figure 4. Map of the monumental area of Paamarca withidentication of major structures and the location of Unit 5,

where the shield was discovered. Map created by the Proyecto

Arqueolgico PaamarcaArea Monumental (PAPAM) in 2010.


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as they were known in 1950, had survived (Figures 7

and8). Although some limited color photography of

Mural B exists (seeBonavia 1974: Plate opp. p. 60),

previously there was no color record of the vivid poly-

chromy of the Iguana painting (Mural D) and neitherpainting had been drawn using a measured scale. The

rediscovery of these paintings thus allowed us the

opportunity to provide the rst to-scale and color-

accurate illustrations of the murals to date, offering

a new source for study of the ancient paintings.

Once we had cleared the painted walls of wind-

blown sand and the fallen rubble of broken adobes

and mortar, we observed that the 1950 excavation

had not reached the original oor (piso 2). We pro-

ceeded to remove three courses of neatly laid adobe

bricks that lled the niche during a later renovation(Figure 9). We also found that some adobe bricks

still remained ush against the lower left corner of

the Iguana painting (Mural D). These bricks were

removed by the projects conservators to expose the

terminus of the Iguanas tail for the rst time since

its burial by the ancient Moche builders. The well-

preserved red, blue, and dark blue-grey tones of the

serrated tail are particularly vibrant and provide a

reference point for the original saturation of the

Moche painting. By removing the remaining adobe

construction ll over the oor, we were also able to

documentfor the rst timethe red bands thatframed the gures both above and below.

Below the last layer of adobe bricks there was a thin

layer of soil (12 cm) that covered the ancient oor.

Upon removing this soil we found two remarkable

things (Figure 10): the oor of the ramp had been

cut parallel to the Strombus Monster mural; and a

woven basketry object had been placed near the edge

of the surface that remained. By cutting the ramp,

the Moche architects created a sloping benchor poss-

ibly an altarwithin the painted niche. The object dis-

covered on that inclined surface was aat, coiled basketwith two vegetal ropes attached to its center (Figure3).

The only other artifacts recovered over the oor were

non-diagnostic ceramic sherds. When the basket was

removed, we could see that it had been laid face

down and that the face was decorated with brown

and red textiles and small yellow feathers that were

sewn onto the center in a radial pattern (Figure 2).

Figure 5. Line drawings of Murals B (right) and D (left). Redrawn by Lisa Trever after illustrations made by Pedro Azabache in 1950(Kosok 1965: Figures10a and10b).


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We identied the object as a shield based upon its

form and similarities to round shields depicted inMoche iconography. The shield could have been

held or tied to the wrist using the two ropes attached

to its reverse. Its vulnerable materials and small size,

however, suggest that the Paamarca shield would

not have been effectively used for defense in battle.

The act of leaving the shield face down in such a

restricted and pictorially rich space, immediately

prior to its closure, suggests that it was left in an

intentional gesture of offering. Other important

ritual objects were placed as offerings in architec-

tural ll within Moche temples elsewhere, such asthe large wooden sculpture excavated in construc-

tion ll within Huaca Cao Viejo in the El Brujo

archaeological complex of the Chicama Valley

(Mujica Barreda 2007: 146151). Offerings and

sacrices accompanied major renovation campaigns

of Moche temples that may have been precipitated

by historical or calendrical events (Uceda and

Tunio 2003). These propitiatory offerings were

carried out within dedicatory and terminationrituals that preceded renovations of public buildings

(Gamboa 2012). The ritual signicance of the offer-

ing of the Paamarca feathered shield here strength-

ens the possibility that this bench was in fact an

altar associated with the mythology of the Iguana

and Strombus Monster.

The Form and Materials of theFeathered Shield

The structure of the shield is divided into two distinct

elements: a frame of coiled basketry that is overlaid on

its face with two layers of woven materials decorated

with dyed stripes and feathers. In general, coiled bask-

etry is composed of a passive coil held in place by

active stitches; James M. Adovasio (2010: 53) calls

the passive coil the foundation and the active the

Figure 6. Plan of Unit 5. The shield was discovered in close proximity to Murals B and D. Field drawing by Jorge Gamboa.


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stitchesand these are the terms used here. The coil

itself is a continuous spiral but the term will be used

to refer to a single, clockwise pass of the passiveelement around the circumference. In the case of

the shield, each of the active stitches crosses two of

the foundation coils at a time, so that the active

stitches overlap as they spiral outward from the

center. The Paamarca shield features close coiling

whereby each coil is locked to the preceding one by

a simple stitch rather than being separated by a false

knot. The basketry base is made of a exible reed

material (either junco [Juncus sp.] or totora [Typhaangustifolia]). Flexible materials used as a foundation

are called bundles (Adovasio 2010: 60). Unlikethe examples illustrated byAdovasio (2010: 67), the

exible cordage is not pierced by the stitches but

rather they wrap around each as a whole.

Coiled basketry is begun at the center. Here, thick,

unspun, vegetal bers were coiled around at least ve

times and secured through the center with seven

wrapping stitches of the same vegetal ber. The

result is a circle with seven lines radiating outward.Additional ber was spiraled around the initial circle

and secured using noninterlocking stitches (see

Adovasio 2010: 75). A line of active stitches aligns

with each of the seven wrapping stitches that

secured the initial central circle. In total, eight coils

were added and secured, forming a rounded hepta-

gon. The nal three coils were then further anchored

by at least 11 long wrapping stitches that encircled the

nal three rows of the basketry. The result is a coarsely

made basketry circle with a diameter of 25 cm and

thickness of 1.5 cm. A coarse, S-spun/Z-pliedcordage ( possibly junco) was secured through the

center of the spiral and formed the shield s handle.

Over the basketry, a layer of dark brown, plain

weave, cotton cloth was tacked down with S-spun,

Z-plied, cream-colored, cotton thread; this cloth

was woven from S-spun ber and had 12 warps and

18 wefts per cm. It was adorned with a series of

Figure 7. The remains of Mural D (the Iguana) in 2010.Watercolor illustration by Jorge Gamboa and Pedro Neciosup. Figure 8. The remains of Mural B (the Strombus Monster) in

2010. Watercolor illustration by Jorge Gamboa and Pedro

Neciosup.


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yellow feathers arranged circularly, of which six small

clusters of two to three feathers each remain in thecenter. These feathers might have come from the

body of the blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna)that was frequently utilized in later Chim

featherwork (Rowe 1984; see also Reid 2005). A

widely spaced running stitch in a white cotton yarn

punctuates the surface of the brown cloth. The

hollow shaft or calamus of the feather was bent

around the exposed stitch and laid on the surface.In ancient Peruvian featherwork, plumes are typically

tied together and then sewn down in parallel rows

onto the ground cloth (dHarcourt 1962: 132133;

Giuntini 2012;Roll 1965). In contrast, Aztec feather-

workers oramantecaof ancient Mexico covered pres-tige items like shields with feather mosaics that were

formed by gluing individual feathers to surfaces

using orchid gums (Berdan 2013; Berdan and

Sahagn 2009). At least two rings of feathers were

applied to the Paamarca shield but the outer ring

was covered by an additional wool textile withnarrow red and pink stripes. This warp-faced cloth

was ner than the brown cotton with a thread

count of 24 warps and six wefts per cm. Both the

red and pink warp yarns were S-spun/Z-plied, as

were the light brown wool wefts. The center of this

striped cloth had been removed and the raw edges

were folded under and tacked down, exposing the

underlying brown cotton layer and central ring of

feathers. No padding or stufng was found between

the textiles and the basketry foundation of the

shield, nor did we observe any signs of use ordamage that would have resulted from the shield

having been struck in antiquity.

Shields in Moche Iconography andArchaeology

Our existing knowledge of Moche shields comes pri-

marily from the myriad representations of shields and

weapon bundles in neline ceramic painting (e.g.

Donnan and McClelland 1999; Kutscher 1983). Inan early description of Moche weaponry and arms

based on this ceramic evidence, Rafael Larco Hoyle

(2001: vol. 1, 216) observed that shields could be

round or oval, rectangular or square, and were often

decorated with geometric and occasionally gural

motifs (Figure 11). Larco reasonably presumed that

Moche shields must have been made of durable

Figure 9. Courses of adobe bricks in situ over theoor of theramp (piso 2).

Figure 10. Excavation of the feathered shield within the paintedniche at Paamarca.


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materials like wood or metal.7

Arturo Jimnez Borja(1938: 106) suggested that the base material of

Moche shields could have been cane or wood

covered with leather or metal. Indeed, some depic-

tions of Moche shields seem to indicate slats of

wood, cane, or metal that were nailed or tied at

each end and sometimes at the center (e.g. Donnan

and McClelland 1999: Figures 6.636.64 and

6.726.73; Kutscher 1983: Abb. 271). But

nowhere in ancient depictions of Moche shields is a

basketry structure made explicit. As Jimnez Borja

and others have noted (e.g. Quilter 2008: 221), thedepicted shields are all surprisingly small for the

purpose of fending off the blows of war clubs. The

small size of the representations of shields in Moche

ceramic iconography corresponds to the actual

object that we found at Paamarca.

Moche ceramic painters illustrated a broad range of

possible shield decorations. In some cases the faces of

the shields are depicted with metal plaques covering

their surfaces (e.g. Donnan and McClelland 1999:

Figure 4.101). Others are adorned with geometric

or zoomorphic designs that could have beenpainted, engraved, orwe now suggestworked in

feathers on the shields surfaces. Although feather-

work is not clearly indicated in the images of

shields on ceramics, small open circles that appear

on the shields depicted on some vessels might refer-

ence tufts of feathers like those stitched onto the

Paamarca shield (e.g. Donnan and McClelland

1999: Figure 4.29). Many round shields are drawn

with a dark band that runs around the circumference

of the outer face, like the dark red wool that covers the

outer area of the Paamarca example.

The many geometric designs found on images ofMoche shields are formally similar to later Inca

tocapu: square, abstract emblems of ethnic identityand military rank that were woven into tunics and

carved or painted on other objects in the late prehis-

panic and early colonial period (Cummins 2011).

Recently, George Lau (2004) has argued that

the round shields with cross designs carried by the

Recuay combatants in the battle scene on the

Moche IV Lhrsen vessel may indicate their

foreign ethnicity. Despite the great diversity of

shapes and designs of the shields carried by Mochewarriors on neline ceramics, however, it is not yet

possible to distinguish meaningful ranks or categories

among them.

Comparison to the few extant examples of Moche

shields is useful in understanding the form and func-

tion of the Paamarca specimen. At Huaca de la

Luna, archaeologists excavated a round Moche

shield associated with Tumba 18 (Testigo no. 3)

that was made of more resilient materials, as Larco

envisioned. That artifact, which measured 42.5 cm

in diameter, consisted of two layers of cane thatwere stitched together and then covered on both

sides with leather. Unlike the smaller Paamarca

shield, leather-covered fabric padding was added to

the Huaca de la Luna shield. In her analysis of this

object, Fernndez Lpez (2007: 295296) observed

that there were indications that it had been used

before it was interred as an offering. The size and

materials of the Huaca de la Luna shield t more

closely what one would expect of a functional

shield, but it remains a surprisingly small item for

real defensive purposes.Ceremonial shields are found among the weaponry

and grave goods that Christopher Donnan discovered

in an elite tomb at the Moche center of Dos Cabezas

in the Jequetepeque Valley (2007: 9092, 103111).

Within the funerary chamber of Tomb 2, Donnan

and his team excavated gilded copper platelets that

once covered the surfaces of three circular shields

Figure 11. Shield designs compiled from Moche ceramiciconography by Rafael Larco Hoyle in the mid-twentieth century

(2001: Vol. 1, Figure 245). Image courtesy of the Museo Larco,

Lima, Peru.


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(32.3, 32.6, and 30 cm in diameter). Unfortunately,

the organic structures of the Dos Cabezas shields

did not survive and only the metal plates that had

covered the faces of the shields remain. But in

Donnans description of two of the shields, he

observes: Although nearly all of the organic material

used in their construction had decomposed, it was

clear that they were made of a cane framework that

was covered with a textile. The gilded copper platelets

were then sewn on the textile, covering the front side

of the shield(2007: 92). Their cane frameworks may

have been similar to the structure of the Huaca de la

Luna shield. But, unlike that example, the ne metal

coverings of the Dos Cabezas shields make clear that

they never served as common shields. Rather, they

must have been high-prestige items belonging toensembles of elaborate military dress, reminiscent

perhaps of the precious suits of intricate, ceremonial

armor produced for the Spanish Habsburg kings

and princes (Frieder 2008). Compared to the

Paamarca shield, these other Moche shields exhibit

distinct functional properties: the example from Huaca

de la Luna might have been more effective in military

activities, while the Dos Cabezas shields were clearly

high-prestige items.

It may be useful also to consider the Paamarca

shields afnities to other coiled basketry formscreated during the Early Intermediate Period on the

north coast of Peru. Although coiled basketry is

rather rare in Peruvian archaeology (Perreault 2006:

53), Jean-Franois Millaires excavation project at

the Vir Valley site of Huaca Santa Clara recovered

a round, shallow basket (40 cm in diameter) from

the ll above the oor of room A-102 (Sector 6)

that was created using the same technique of coiled

bundles of reeds secured by several, well-spaced,

active stitches (Millaire 2010, n.d.; Perreault 2006:

Figure 18). The technique used to create thePaamarca shield may have been derived directly

from this domestic technology. There is some evi-

dence that the application of this basketry technique

to the production of lightweight Moche shields

might not be unique. Christopher Donnan called

our attention to a round basketry fragment that he

documented on the surface of Guadalupito

(PV28156), a Moche IV site in the Santa Valley,

during his dissertation eldwork in 1965

(Figure 12). That basketry disk measured c.20 cmacross and was built of unspun reeds that were

coiled around a central element (now lost) and heldin place by 10 active stitches that also attached

spoke-like reed ribs to the coiled foundation (see

Donnan 1973: 115, Plate 11c). The stitching tech-

nique is somewhat different from what we see in

the Paamarca example, but the completelyat, bask-

etry disc that it produced is similar enough to raise the

possibility that the Guadalupito fragment might once

have been a Moche shield as well.8 Together, these

two artifacts could represent a type of Moche

shieldperhaps typical of the southern valleysthat

made use of a common, domestic technology andmodest structural materials.

In reviewing depictions of shields in middle and

late Moche (Phase IIIV) ceramic iconography, and

examining the very small corpus of extant examples,

we reach several conclusions on the form, facture,

Figure 12. A spiral basketry fragment found on the surface ofGuadalupito (PV28156) in the Santa Valley by Christopher

B. Donnan in 1965 (1973: Plate 11c). Image courtesy of

Christopher B. Donnan.


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and function of the Paamarca shield. The overall

appearance of a round shield with a dark band

along its edge and a lighter center decorated with a

radial pattern ts expectations born out of icono-

graphic study. But the particular use of feathers todecorate the shield is thus far entirely unique.

Although feathers are frequently depicted in Moche

headdresses, hand-held fans, and other ceremonial

objects and garments, actual featherwork very rarely

survives from Moche contexts (see King 2012). The

Paamarca shield provides a rare glimpse of this

poorly known Moche artistic medium that must

once have been a rich form of artistic expression.

Even among other Moche shields, which all evidence

indicates were small, the Paamarca shield is diminu-

tive. Compared to the cane and leather shield ofHuaca de la Luna, or the gilded copper shields of

Dos Cabezas, the coiled basketry shield from

Paamarca appears especially fragile. Of course, when

the object was rst made and its bers were fresher

and greener it might have been more resilient; indeed

basketry armor is known to be an effective option

used elsewhere in the world (e.g. Mason 1988

[1904]: 222223). But if the shields small size, soft

materials, and lack of apparent damage are considered

together, it seems likely that this object was never

meant for real use in combat, but was primarilyceremonial.

On the Symbolism of Shields

We have presented the discovery, architectural

context, and physical description of a rare surviving

example of a ceremonial Moche shield made of bask-

etry and decorated with textiles and featherwork.

Presumably, this object was used in religious and/or

military pageantry before it was left as an offeringwithin a niche that in the twentieth century became

one of the most famous painted corners of

Paamarca. But we do not take this artifact in itself

as evidence to support the view that Moche battle

was only ceremonial or ritual, becauseeven in the

mostly devastating military campaignsthe for-

malities of battleeld action, ofcial dress and

regalia, and the brandishing of national colors and

insignia were ritualized (see Quilter 2002; cf.

Bourget 2001). What the Paamarca shield implies

for us is that the concept of a shield could transcend

its defensive function to become an abstractedsymbol, potent within Moche ritual or devotional

practice here witnessed archaeologically.

Moche shields and war clubs were primary

elements of the weapon bundle motif ubiquitous in

Moche arts, especially from the middle Moche

(c.400 C.E.) period onward. The panoply oftenincorporates spear throwers, darts, andat timesthe

garments of a fallen warrior (e.g. Kutscher 1983:

Abb. 9093). By the late Moche period, the

weapon bundle became one of the most salient

symbols in Moche art. The club and shield motifemerged as a kind of logo for the Moche culture

(Benson 2008: 10) and the trophy-like bundle of

the defeated warriors weapons and clothes solidied

as an iconic, summarizing symbolfor the militar-

istically oriented Moche ideology (Quilter 2008:

215). At Paamarca, a large weapon bundle was

painted adjacent to the Sacrice Ceremony mural

studied by Bonavia (1959: Plates 34) and a series

of clubs and round shields was painted on a wall at

the Moche site of El Castillo in the Santa Valley

just to the north (Wilson 1988: 207, Figure 107).Indeed, the motif occurs as a paramount symbol of

Moche ideology and identity throughout the Moche

realm for centuries.9

Anthropomorphized weapons and weapon bundles

are painted on ceramic vessels in the act of seizing

stripped-down opponents defeated in battle (e.g.

Donnan and McClelland 1999: Figure 6.73;

Kutscher 1983: Abb. 271). These animated

weapons also appear in mural painting at Huaca de

la Luna (Quilter 1990; Uceda et al. 2011), Huaca

Facho (Donnan 1972), and as discovered mostrecently at Paamarca. The new painting at

Paamarca is located on a square pillar and depicts

a round, red and blue shield and club with a

human head, yellow arms, and blue-grey feet and

hands (Figure13). To its right, one can discern the

form of a standing human that appears to be bound

by a rope held by the animated weapons. These


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depictions may reference a Moche myth of the

Revolt of the Objects (Lyon 1981;Quilter 1990,

1997), but they may also present a visual rhetorical

device by which the physical might and martial

prowess of the Moche warrior is conveyed through

the action of his enlivened weaponry (see Benson

2008: 1011; Jackson 2011: 234237). The sym-

bolic valence of clubs and shields in Moche visual

rhetoric was great and it is within this ideological

context that we must also position the shield discov-

ered at Paamarca. That is, the shield offered in theniche painted with images of the Strombus Monster

and the Iguana was not just a defensive object; what

was offered was a transcendent symbol of Moche

elite identity and martial culture.10

The Paamarca feathered shield is a remarkable

objectnot just in its material singularity, but also

for the richness of its archaeological context and pro-

found cultural signicance. It was interred in an

ancient ceremonial precinct that has come to

occupy an important place in the modern history of

Peruvian archaeology. The discovery of the Mochefeathered shield makes clear thatdespite great loss

from centuries of extensive looting, neglect, and

environmental catastropheall has not been lost at

Paamarca. What survives of the sites architecture,

mural painting, and associated artifacts is of tremen-

dous scientic and artistic value in the study of the

ancient Andes and global antiquity.

Acknowledgments

The Paamarcaeld project was made possible as part

of Trevers dissertation research, which has been sup-

ported by The Wenner-Gren Foundation, theFulbright-Hays DDRA program, Harvard

University, and Dumbarton Oaks Research Library

and Collection. We are grateful for the assistance, col-

laboration, and good advice offered by Christopher

B. Donnan, Heidi King, Jean-Franois Millaire,

Ulla Holmquist, Frances Berdan, Cathy Costin,

Juliet Wiersema, Andrew Hamilton, Jeffrey Quilter,

Ricardo Morales, Santiago Uceda, and Csar

Cordova in our study of this unique artifact. Our

thanks go to the journals reviewers, especially

Donald Proulx who graciously declined anonymityand offered important critiques. All errors, of

course, remain our own. We are especially indebted

to the intellectual generosity of the late Duccio

Bonavia, whose pioneering work at Paamarca in

1958 made our own possible. We dedicate this

article to his esteemed memory.

Notes

1. The Proyecto Arqueolgico PaamarcaArea

Monumental (PAPAM) 2010 was designed and exe-cuted by Lisa Trever, Jorge Gamboa Velsquez, andRicardo Toribio Rodrguez with the permission ofthe Ministerio de Cultura (formerly InstitutoNacional de Cultura), Peru (Res. Dir. Nac. no.032, 08/01/2010). Ricardo Morales Gamarra, co-director of the Huaca de la Luna archaeologicalproject, coordinated the conservation of mural paint-ing and objects excavated by the project. JorgeGamboa directed the excavation of the featheredshield. Flannery Surette analyzed the shields formand materials in the projects eld house in Nepea.

2. We date the shield and its burial to the late Moche

period ofc.600850 C.E. based on the iconographicafnities of the associated mural paintings with MocheIV and V ceramic painting, as well as evidence fromelsewhere for the spread of Moche IV imagery intothe southern valleys during the seventh century(Chapdelaine 2011; see alsoKoons 2012).

3. Professional conservators from the Huaca de la Lunaproject performed the actual excavations of thepainted walls. They stabilized the broken surfaces

Figure 13. Detail of an animated club and shield (center) andhuman prisoner (far right) painted on a pillar discovered at

Paamarca in 2010.


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of the paintings as they were revealed, employing atoolkit of tiny spatulas and syringes to add adobemortar to weak points. No restoration of the paint-ings was performed and the conservators did notapply irreversible chemical agents to harden the sur-

faces. Fallen painting fragments that could not beplaced back into their original positions wererecorded, recovered, and carefully packed for futurestudy and possible reintegration. At the close of theeld season all of the painted walls were protectedand reburied to ensure their preservation.

4. The full results of theeld project await publication.Study of the mural paintings appears in Lisa Trevers2013 dissertation: Moche Mural Painting atPaamarca: A Study of Image Making andExperience in Ancient Peru, in the Department ofHistory of Art and Architecture at HarvardUniversity.

5. The map of the monumental area of Paamarcaillustrated in Figure 4 was created by the PAPAMin 2010 in partnership with archaeologists MicheleKoons, David Chicoine, Hugo Ikehara, MattHelmer, Jimmy Lpez Gomero, and LussianaMedina Ap.

6. On the iconography of this Moche gure, see, forexample: Bonavia and Makowski 1999; Bourget1994; Castillo 1989; Donnan and McClelland1999: 118119; Golte 1993, 1994, 2009;McClelland et al. 2007: 6275.

7. Larcos chapter Rgimen militar, which includes

his ideas on Moche shields, was not included inthe original two-volume publication ofLos mochicas(1938, 1939). It remained in manuscript form untilthe Museo Larco publication of the full work in2001 (Vol. 1, 199229). Curator Ulla Holmquistnotes that Larcos illustration of shield designs seenhere was probably drawn in the 1950s ( personalcommunication to Trever, October 3, 2012).

8. Donnan (1973: 115) writes that two other at,round baskets could be compared to hisGuadalupito nd: one photographed in a Mochetomb at Pacatnam by Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering (1966: 65); and another excavated by

Max Uhle during his 1899 excavations at Huacasde Moche, which now resides in the Phoebe

A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at theUniversity of California, Berkeley (42597B).

9. As Benson notes (2008: 10), the weapons bundleappears with such marked frequency on ceramicsproduced at San Jos de Moro, to the north in the

Jequetepeque Valley, that it seems to have becomea logo for the site as well. The motif occurs on

more than half of the stirrup spout bottles of thesite (McClelland et al. 2007: 114).

10. In our excavation of the surface of Unit 5, we recov-ered several fragments of thick ceramic club heads(porras) that are likely to have ornamented the

roofs of the painted temples of Platform II, as havebeen found at Huaca de la Luna and Huaca CaoViejo, and are represented in neline drawings ofMoche architecture on ceramics.

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