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When I got back to the site, however, there was no opportunity for that
discussion to take place. As I pulled up, I could see the whole bunch of them
waving at me from the top of the huaca, and soon, at their instructions, I was
heading up there to join them. They were almost dancing with excitement, and
with good reason. They had found very promising signs of a tomb, an area about
ten feet long and eight feet wide lined with adobe bricks, and what looked to
be the outline of timbers, the vigas that would roof the chamber. The center
was still filled with earth, but it was clearly a different color and texture.
This is the lining of a burial chamber, I m almost certain, Steve explained
for my benefit. With this kind of structure, a large brick-lined chamber,
it ll be a tomb for someone important. The Moche didn t build these kinds of
chambers for just your average guy. I expect the roof timbers will have
collapsed under the weight of all this earth, but I think it may just be an
untouched tomb, although we can t be absolutely sure until we get there.
There ll be flying femurs tomorrow! Ralph crowed. Please, please, let
there be untouched ceramics for me.
Only Hilda was quiet, perhaps because of the effort it took her to climb the
huaca, or because she felt it was almost too much to hope for.
By now it was getting late, and Hilda called a halt to the day s work. I had
to run my usual taxi service into town for the workers and students, although
I could do it in one trip now with all the defections, while Steve took the
others home in our second truck, thereby eliminating another opportunity for
me to speak to him.
Dinner was a fairly raucous affair, and for a change Hilda stayed for most of
it, helping to plan the next day s work. What makes everyone so sure they ve
found an important person s tomb? I asked Ralph.
Because of where it is, and the type of tomb it is, he replied. First of
all it s right in the huaca. That says a lot. Also, the Moche appear to have
had a range of burial procedures and rituals which depended, by and large, on
the individual s status, in much the same way we do. Some of us are buried in
simple graves with wooden markers, others with elaborate headstones and the
finest coffins, he said.
For the Moche, the commonest form the grave with a simple wooden cross, if
you will would be a pit burial, just a shallow grave really, with a few burial
goods interred with them. The middle class, if we can use that term, would
have had more elaborate burials. A shaft would have been constructed down
several feet, then a chamber hollowed out, sometimes to one side, like the
foot on a boot. The bodies were lowered down the shaft, either horizontally or
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vertically depending on the size of the shaft, and placed in the chamber. We
know that much from Moche ceramics, my specialty. Ralph smiled. Burial
scenes are depicted on several that we know of, and they show the bodies being
lowered into the chambers by two ritual or perhaps mythological beings,
Iguana, someone with the face of a lizard, and Wrinkle Face, a being with a
very wrinkled face, as the names imply.
For the higher status individuals, and this is what we re hoping for here,
large chambers were constructed, large enough to hold the individual, lots of
grave goods, some very elaborate, and other sacrificed animals, like llamas or
dogs, and individuals, perhaps their retainers in life. Sometimes there are
even guardians, bodies placed in niches above the principal body. So these
graves are much larger, they have been known to have adobe walls, and they are
more likely to have timber roofs. The presence of these three things, a large
chamber, the adobe walls, and the roofing, is what makes us pretty excited
about what tomorrow may bring.
So what will this look like, if we get in? I asked.
Steve jumped into the conversation with enthusiasm. Moche dead are normally
buried flat on their backs, arms at their sides, with the head usually facing
more or less south and away from the shaft. They were wrapped in cloth, then
enclosed in some kind of cane sleeve or tube, although there wouldn t be much
of the cloth or the cane left, probably. The head normally rests on a plate of
some kind, its material related to the status of the individual, a gourd for
the lowliest, a gold disc for the most powerful. The feet are often in
sandals, silver ones for the big guys, much more humble ones for those of
lower status. If we re really lucky and it s a warrior priest or something,
he ll be wearing the full regalia ear spools, the headdress, back flaps,
necklaces, everything. Actually, I don t even want to think about this, in
case it jinxes us. Steve laughed.
How do we think thehuaqueros missed this one? I asked. If indeed they
did.
If is a good way to put it, Steve replied. Remember what I told you about
Moche pyramids. They were built platform on top of platform. There could be
individuals buried in the different levels. It s possible thathuaqueros found
a tomb higher up in the structure and figured that was it.
It was at this point that Hilda decided to retire for the night, this time
without the scotch bottle, a development I considered real progress, and
perhaps an indication of just how important she felt the next day s work would
be. The rest of us sat around for a while waiting to see Ines off. Tomas was a
little later than usual, and I figured once Ines had left, everyone would
start to head upstairs to get some rest for the big day ahead and I might have
an opportunity to have a quiet word with Steve about Puma and Pachamama.
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When Tomas came to pick up Ines, however, he brought with him bad news.
Gonzalo Fernandez, the night guard at the site, had walked off the job. Just
after dark, Fernandez had seen, according to Tomas, an apparition of an owl, a
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