Moche Civilization

In this lush, sugar cane-growing northern river valley near to both coast and desert, the land suddenly adopts an almost lunar aspect. To an untrained eye, it seems as if bomber pilots have run amok, tearing the turf asunder. There, though, in the midst of the extensive digging, stands an eroded mud brick platform. It's not much to see.

Strombus Monster Meets Demon Fish! Wrinkle Face Battles Crab Deity! Fox-Head Fish Fights Sea Anemone! The curved clay surfaces of Moche vessels from ancient Peru are sites of extraordinary imaginative activity, rendered in linear drawings that range from blunt to delicate, emblematic to impossibly intricate. Some of the imagery is supernatural, some is not, but all of it speaks of a worldview so complex and alien to modern life as to be nearly impenetrable.

The Moche civilization flourished in irrigated river valleys on the north coast of Peru 1,000 years before the dawn of the Inca Empire. Working with a vast and intricate irrigation system that trapped the waters of Andean rivers, the Moche grew corn, beans, chile peppers, potatoes, squash and corn. They dined on Muscovy ducks, llama and guinea pigs. They caught fish and sea lions in the ocean nearby.

With a shovel and metal pole to probe for bones and treasure, Segundo Salazar digs deep into the hot desert sand on Peru's northern coast looking for the graves of his ancestors to loot. For generations, peasants like Salazar near Sipan, a village surrounded by sugar cane fields 500 miles northwest of Lima, have made a living as "huaqueros"--the Quechua Indian word for "grave robbers."

The National Geographic Society on Tuesday announced discovery of the tomb of a "Peruvian King Tut," laden with a wealth of elaborate gold and silver artifacts, and hailed it as the richest archeological find in the Western Hemisphere. The discovery of the burial site, containing more than 100 precious ornaments, clothing and decorated ceramics, sheds light on the Moche people, a little-known civilization that flourished on the northern coast of Peru 1,000 years before the Incas.

In an ancient tomb at the bottom of a deep shaft, Izumi Shimada has uncovered gold that looters failed to find. Finely tooled ornaments, recently exposed, peek out from the compacted dust of 10 centuries and gleam like sunshine breaking through clouds. This cache was left by a little-known pre-Inca society called Sican or Lambayeque.

Christopher Donnan likes to think of himself as a "dirt archeologist," by which he means he's just a humble, no-frills field investigator who is never happier than when he's snuffling about in field boots and Levi's in an ancient Indian grave somewhere in Peru. He comes across as a low-key, straight-forward, completely unassuming person and seems utterly honest when he says his happiest moments are when he is alone in his research lab. "I'm a very private kind of person," he says.

Strombus Monster Meets Demon Fish! Wrinkle Face Battles Crab Deity! Fox-Head Fish Fights Sea Anemone! The curved clay surfaces of Moche vessels from ancient Peru are sites of extraordinary imaginative activity, rendered in linear drawings that range from blunt to delicate, emblematic to impossibly intricate. Some of the imagery is supernatural, some is not, but all of it speaks of a worldview so complex and alien to modern life as to be nearly impenetrable.

With a shovel and metal pole to probe for bones and treasure, Segundo Salazar digs deep into the hot desert sand on Peru's northern coast looking for the graves of his ancestors to loot. For generations, peasants like Salazar near Sipan, a village surrounded by sugar cane fields 500 miles northwest of Lima, have made a living as "huaqueros"--the Quechua Indian word for "grave robbers."

Federal agents in Philadelphia have arrested two men on charges they tried to sell a smuggled pre-Incan artifact that once lay under the bones of a warrior-priest buried in the Andes foothills. Orlando Mendez, 31, and Denis Garcia, 57, both of Miami, flew the piece into New York, drove down the New Jersey Turnpike to a parking lot at a Philadelphia hotel and tried to sell it for $1.6 million, authorities said.

In this lush, sugar cane-growing northern river valley near to both coast and desert, the land suddenly adopts an almost lunar aspect. To an untrained eye, it seems as if bomber pilots have run amok, tearing the turf asunder. There, though, in the midst of the extensive digging, stands an eroded mud brick platform. It's not much to see.

In an ancient tomb at the bottom of a deep shaft, Izumi Shimada has uncovered gold that looters failed to find. Finely tooled ornaments, recently exposed, peek out from the compacted dust of 10 centuries and gleam like sunshine breaking through clouds. This cache was left by a little-known pre-Inca society called Sican or Lambayeque.

Christopher Donnan likes to think of himself as a "dirt archeologist," by which he means he's just a humble, no-frills field investigator who is never happier than when he's snuffling about in field boots and Levi's in an ancient Indian grave somewhere in Peru. He comes across as a low-key, straight-forward, completely unassuming person and seems utterly honest when he says his happiest moments are when he is alone in his research lab. "I'm a very private kind of person," he says.

The Moche civilization flourished in irrigated river valleys on the north coast of Peru 1,000 years before the dawn of the Inca Empire. Working with a vast and intricate irrigation system that trapped the waters of Andean rivers, the Moche grew corn, beans, chile peppers, potatoes, squash and corn. They dined on Muscovy ducks, llama and guinea pigs. They caught fish and sea lions in the ocean nearby.

The National Geographic Society on Tuesday announced discovery of the tomb of a "Peruvian King Tut," laden with a wealth of elaborate gold and silver artifacts, and hailed it as the richest archeological find in the Western Hemisphere. The discovery of the burial site, containing more than 100 precious ornaments, clothing and decorated ceramics, sheds light on the Moche people, a little-known civilization that flourished on the northern coast of Peru 1,000 years before the Incas.

U.S. Bans Peruvian Treasures: The United States has barred importation of archeological treasures from Peru in a bid to cut into the illegal sale of such artifacts. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the ban was imposed to help curb looting in the Sipan region of Peru, following a request from the Lima government.

You don't have to go to Cooperstown to see baseball greats inducted into a hall of fame. The Baseball Reliquary each year honors a handful of people who have contributed to America's pastime by electing them to the Shrine of the Eternals.