Moche Art and Visual Culture in Ancient Peru

Margaret A. Jackson

Scattered throughout their coastal homelands, the remains of impressive artworks produced by the Moche of northern Peru survive. These works include ceremonial centers extensively decorated with murals, as well as elaborate and sophisticated ceramic vessels, textiles, and metalwork, that serve to visually represent an ancient American culture that developed a complex, systematized pictorial code used to communicate narratives, sets of ideas, and ideological constructs.

In this study, Margaret Jackson analyzes Moche ceremonial architecture and ceramics to propose the workings of a widely understood visual language. Using an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates archaeology and linguistics with art history and studies of visual culture, Jackson looks at the symbolism of Moche art as a form of communication, the social mechanisms that produced it, and how it served to maintain the Moche social fabric.

"An indispensable resource for scholars interested in early writing systems, linguistic theory, and ancient Andean artistic traditions. Highly recommended."--Choice Magazine

"Jackson's absorbing and rewarding study gives a good foundation in Native American studies which carries beyond its particular topic."--Midwest Book Review

Margaret A. Jackson is a faculty fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University.

7 x 10 248 pages 18 color plates, 138 halftones, 25 line drawings, 1 map