Rituals

During their most prominent time, 450 and 650 b.C., the Huaca de la Luna was composed by two platforms which were intercommunicated through three squares; the entrance was located at the northern side of the main square, were human remains with traces of ritual sacrifices have been found.

According to researchers, such sacrifices weren’t performed just to shed blood, but to please the deities that dominated the forces of nature and organized life.

The Huaca de la Luna, located in a landscape dominated by the Cerro Blanco, had a majestic looking façadewhich led to hallways progressively more narrow, where at a specific point visitors were forced to make a one-man-line to continue the route.

The increasing narrowness of the roads that lead to the platform where the ritual ceremonies were performed proves that the sacrifices began with ceremonies performed initially in a public square but then continued and concluded in a private enclosure, where only the priest and some members of the Mochica elite were allowed.

It should be stressed that in the Mochica cosmic vision, human sacrifices were not simple acts of violence but religious beliefs deeply rooted in a people that depended on the forces of the sun, the mountains, the sea, the winds, the rivers, the rain and the land, to continue living.

The first square was wide enough to hold thousands of people. From this point visitors could see the images that adorn the inner walls of the enclosure to this day, and the beginning of the ritual ceremonies.

There was a second square of similar dimensions as the first which could hold less people.

The third square had three sectors corresponding to the different times when the archaeological monument was used. In this area human remains sacrificed during ritual ceremonies were found.

The evidence of calcination on some human remains sacrificed at the Huaca de la Luna, has led physical anthropologists to believe that after the sacrifices, the bodies were left outdoors for long periods of time.

Recent mitochondrial DNA studies, performed comparing the human remains recovered from tombs of elite people, craftspeople and sacrifice victims prove that people were given as offerings to the deities and were not brought from other towns; they were professional warriors, from the same Mochica racial background.

Mitochondrial DNA is obtained from the set of teeth. The research done on it them presents certain limitations, because it doesn’t allow the finding of a complete genetic sequence of the studied individual, only his maternal ancestry. It is generally used when there are no tissue remains with live DNA that would allow more complete DNA studies, obtaining information on the maternal and paternal genetic sequence.


Remains of sacrificed Mochica prisoners.