Nasca & Moche Burials

The mortuary practices of various peoples can tell archaeologists a great deal about their cultures' beliefs and behavior. An examination of the archaeological evidence from burial sites of the Nasca and Moche people of pre-Incan Peru will demonstrate how such conclusions can be drawn. Burial remains are, of course, incomplete evidence -- even in terms of the ritual associated with death and disposal of the body. But the details of burial sites and the iconography of art associated with them are the only primary sources on mortuary practice. These peoples were preliterate and did not come into contact with literate groups. The only information that supplements the archaeological record is the retrospective comparison of earlier cultures with what was recorded by observers of Inca practice. But there is a wealth of information available from the early sites and the study and analysis of mortuary practice is the means by which this information is extracted. Even if the evidence is incomplete and often ambiguous, burial sites do provide the material for "postulating baselines from which to evaluate likely conditions in time and space" and these hypotheses can be tested against other available evidence (Dillehay, 1995, p. 19).

The primary questions that can be answered from the examination of burial sites is the manner in which these cultures linked the dead with the living. How they conceptualized death was also strongly related to the manner in which ritual and plain

nd Chan Chan are indicates that the Nasca were neither as complex nor as wealthy a society as the Moche and others (Silverman, 1993, p. 216). Neither Carmichael nor Silverman found that body orientation related to status. Silverman also found that many of the variations in the quality of grave goods as, for example, differences in wrapping textiles, were largely due to the difference in the Phases in which the individuals were buried rather than to status considerations (Cahuachi has graves from Phases 2-8). Yet it is clear that some Nasca "were the recipients of greater attention in death than others" and this is manifested in differences in grave goods, tomb construction, and body preparation. The differentiation increases in the later Nasca Phases and, Silverman notes, this coordinates with other data indicating that "late Nasca society was more socially differentiated than early Nasca society" (1993, p. 216). In terms of the differentiation of status that can be inferred from grave goods, Silverman emphasizes textiles. The "iconography and labor investment inherent to textiles" makes them a basis for "real status differentiation" (1993, p. 216). But Silverman does not agree that ceramic ware functions as an important

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