Moche art of ancient Peru, Gold, myths and rituals

The Moche or Mochica culture is a pre-Inca culture that flourished between the I and the VII centuries AD in the Moche River valley (now the province of Trujillo), a desert strip of the northern coast of Peru. The Mochicas societies were characterized by high technological and architectural development for its complex social organization and for their talent and artistic sensibility. Their artists besides having a great skill in creating works, showed as well a great knowledge of cosmology and mythology explaining the world. In its magnificent and beautiful pottery they expressed their stories, beliefs, myths and rituals, and in their cloth and jewelry the attributes of sacred animals with which their leaders expressed their power and divine ancestry.