THE CULT OF THE MOCHES.

Moche culture is one of the oldest in ancient Peru. Its central region was located in the Valley of the Moche River on the Northern Coast not far from the today's city of Trujillo. They lived in a few Oases fromed in the Valleys of the Coastal Rivers. The Oases were separated by a lifeless belt of desert, 10 kilometers wide. At the very same time the Valleys which repeatedly were flooded by Rivers yield good harvest for their inhabitants.
Moche culture developed in the area which had previously belonged under the Chavin rule. Moche religion and art shows signs absorbed from the earlier Chavin culture. Because the rich human-shaped pottery shows that the human typology of the Moche people includes Mongoloid as well as Negroid features, then it confirms that their ways of interaction with the outside phenomena was based in a supernatural way.
The 3 major phenomena in Moche religion are: 1) the cult of the warrior-priest as an official religion.
2) the shaman practice as one with the individual. 3) the cult of the dead.
Knowledge of the Moche pantheon is sketchy. Al Paec the Creator god or the son of the Creator, is depicted in Moche art with ferocious fangs, a puma or jaguar headdress, and snake earrings, and was considered to dwell in the High Mountains. The earplugs were deftly inlaid with shell and turquoise giving them a view of the insight of its Creator god as a quick-neat-witted force and they tried to represent it in the physical world. Also the earrings were decorated  with figures of warriors wielding mace and shield. The earplugs were 4 inches wide and they were worn by the Mochica leaders. Human sacrifices, especially of war prisoners but also Mochica citizens, were done in a clear sense of subordination or power to the one entitled to it. Their blood, representing the energy or substance moving in the physical world, was offered in ritual goblets to their Creator god."Si" was considered the supreme deity. This goddess controlled the seasons and storms that had such an influence on agriculture and daily life. The goddess was seen both at night and during the day. Women played a prominent role in Moche religion and ceremony as it is shown in murals of the tomb of a priestess known as "the lady of Cao" (la senora de Cao). The painted bean warrior figure is a conventional motif in Moche decorations, since they represent the ones defending the Moche power. The maces, round shields, darts and conical crested helmets represented actual fighting gear of the warrior vested in the unseen world. They held a high rank level within society.
Another deity who frequently appears in Moche art is the half-man, half-jaguar Decapitator god. He is often represented holding a sacrificial knife (Tumi) in one hand and the severe head of the conquered force shown as a human head in the other hand. Such detailed scenes of daily life, skilled at rendering movement and action in the painting, mirror the real life events that the Moche people encounter day by day. At the foot of the Moon Pyramid 40 skeletons of men under 30 years of age were found. They were mutilated and thrown from the top of the pyramid. The bodies lie above soft ground which suggests that the power invested in these men were broken in similar stages the skeleton is shown. Ceremonial goblets containing traces of human blood were found also, and costumed and be-jeweled individuals almost exactly like the religious entities depicted in Moche murals, were found there.
The Moche were gifted potters and superb metalworkers. Potters created lifelike representations, and modeled portraits of actual people on their clay effigy vessels. Probably only a person of the nobility, able to carry a great deal of power, enough to defend its people from the judgment of the supernatural forces, had his portrait done in this manner.
The pink jar clay figures, modeled in a naturalistic style, were also used for Moche people in burial rites. The turban was standard headgear. The natural clay gave the vessel its pink tone.
Exquisite gold headdresses and chest plates, gold, silver, and turquoise jewelry (ear-spools and nose ornaments), textiles, tumi-knives, and copper bowls and drinking vessels, found in their tombs reflect the highest level of achievements in their respective craft.
Many fine examples of Moche art have been unearthed from Tombs at Sipan, Saint Joseph of Moro, and the Old Shrine Cao (Haca Cao Viejo), which are the amongst some of the best preserved burial sites from any Andean culture.