Peru's Timeless Threads

More than 1,000 years ago, master weavers kept the ancient traditions of the Moche culture alive

- JARRETT A. LOBELL

IF A CATASTROPHIC ERUPTION suddenly buries most of a region under volcanic ash, does the culture of those still living there end abruptly? Does the identity of people who have endured for hundreds of years transform completely when a rival conquers a centuries-old capital, or when climate change makes farming the land impossible? The archaeological record shows that even under pressure, whether extreme or gradual, people carry on despite altered circumstances, preserving at least some of their culture in the form of artistic techniques and styles. “Cultures can be flexible and resilient,” says archaeologist Jeffrey Quilter of Harvard University, “even in the face of great change.”

Quilter and a team including archaeologist Carlos Rengifo of the National University of Trujillo and art historian Amy Oakland of California State University, East Bay, wanted to see how the people of the Moche culture, who lived in Peru's northern coastal valleys between about A.D. 350 and 850, preserved their identity even as powerful groups from other regions threatened it. The team examined textiles excavated at Huaca del Sol, a multilayered adobe mound measuring 1,000 feet long and 500 feet wide that once stood 135 feet high. Made with 130 million bricks, Huaca del Sol was the largest pre-Columbian adobe structure in the Americas.

The Moche were skilled weavers who created vibrantly colored and richly patterned textiles to make clothing and bags that were used by the living, and garments and offerings to bury with the dead. The importance placed on these items made them a perfect vehicle to investigate the Moche's response to their shifting circumstances. “Textiles, like ceramics, are one of the best ways to find people's core traditions,” Oakland says. “But ceramics are often imported, while most cloth is local, so it's textiles that really tell you who people are.”