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| Image credit: Courtesy Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos/Programa Arqueológico Chicama |
The Discovery
New research at an archaeological site in northern Peru that had been abandoned for three decades has revealed fresh evidence that the location served as a major centre of ceramic production for the Moche civilisation. According to the Andina news agency, a team from the Chicama Archaeological Programme (Prach) of the National University of San Marcos has begun excavation work at the Cerro Mayal archaeological site, a small settlement located in the Chicama Valley, in Peru's La Libertad region, long known for its concentration of Moche pottery workshops.
The Moche civilisation consisted of a network of independent city-states and autonomous polities in the coastal desert that shared a common culture, religion, art and advanced irrigation technology. It spanned much of the northern coast of what is now Peru, from around AD 100 to AD 800. Archaeologist Henry Tantaleán, a co-director of Prach, told Andina that since excavations at Cerro Mayal resumed the previous year, the team has uncovered moulds and potters' plates within the upper layers of the site.
What Archaeologists Found
"This season, we are finding more moulds, especially figurine moulds, and we are also finding potters' plates and numerous waste products from the ceramic manufacturing process," Tantaleán told Andina. He explained that the site's initial layers are covered by a great deal of ceramic production waste, confirming the settlement's long artisanal and pottery-making history.
During the previous year's excavations at Cerro Mayal, walls built with adobe and stone were discovered, alongside possible areas used for preparing vessels, suggesting the structures functioned as seventh-century equivalents of live-work studios. "We have been able to determine that people lived in the workshops," Tantaleán said, adding that the team's current focus is on better understanding how the workspaces of Moche potters were actually organised.
According to archaeologist Jeffrey Quilter, Moche pottery ranks among the most varied in the world, distinguished by ornate decoration and the sophisticated use of moulding technology. The civilisation is particularly known for its portraiture pottery, which frequently depicts actual individuals rather than idealised or generic figures, a distinctive artistic achievement within the wider ceramic traditions of the ancient Americas.
Historical Background
Previous excavations at the site were carried out in the late 1980s and mid-1990s by archaeologists Glenn Russell and Banks Leonard, whose radiocarbon dating served as the initial chronological reference point for Cerro Mayal. The site is located on the property of the Casa Grande Sugar Company and remains at ongoing risk of looting and encroachment. "It's a site that has been quite unprotected," Tantaleán said, emphasising that the current project's objective is to gather as much information as possible about Moche society and its ceramic production, while also improving the precision of dating for pottery production at the site.
The team that worked at Cerro Mayal in the 1990s identified six dates of use, centred around the seventh century and the Moche Phase IV era of the fifth and sixth centuries, though the carbon-dating techniques available at that time were considerably less precise than those in use today. "By reducing the dating uncertainty, we will be able to correlate this Cerro Mayal site with other Moche sites in the valley," Tantaleán said, noting that the Prach team has already sent new samples to a laboratory in the United States to obtain more accurate radiocarbon dates.
Scientific Analysis
José Miguel Pérez-Gómez, a Caracas-based archaeologist researching cross-regional interaction between Andean and Amazonian cultures, told The Art Newspaper that the renewed excavations at Cerro Mayal are significant for their potential to illuminate "one of the least understood dimensions of Moche culture: the people and social mechanisms behind its extraordinary ceramics." Pérez-Gómez describes Moche ceramics as among the richest visual traditions of the ancient Americas, spanning mould-made vessels, stirrup-spout bottles, sculptural portraits and remarkably delicate fine-line paintings depicting warriors, captives, animals, plants, ritual performances, supernatural beings and elaborate narrative scenes. Predominantly rendered in red-on-cream, these objects have become, in his words, "an extraordinary visual archive for reconstructing Moche ideology and society."
"We know far more about what Moche ceramics depict than about the communities that produced them. Cerro Mayal may help reverse that imbalance," Pérez-Gómez added. He outlined the fundamental questions now facing researchers as concerning the complete chaîne opératoire, or full production sequence: where potters obtained their clay and pigments; how moulds were created, copied and circulated; how vessels were formed, painted and fired; how labour was organised within workshop-households; and whether artisans worked independently or under elite patronage. He noted that recent technological research elsewhere has already demonstrated that apparently standardised Moche production can conceal considerable underlying technical diversity.
Why This Discovery Matters
"The ceramic production sites are much less known than the Moche pottery itself," Tantaleán said. "That's why our interest lies in understanding more deeply how these workshops functioned." This gap in knowledge is precisely what makes the Cerro Mayal excavations so significant: rather than adding further examples to the already substantial catalogue of studied Moche ceramic objects, the project targets the comparatively neglected question of production itself, including the daily lives, labour organisation and household structures of the potters responsible for creating this celebrated artistic tradition.
The identification of combined living and working spaces at the site offers a particularly valuable, tangible link between craft production and domestic life in Moche society, addressing exactly the kind of social and organisational questions that Pérez-Gómez identifies as central to advancing the field.
What's Next?
The new radiocarbon dating currently underway is expected to help contextualise production at Cerro Mayal alongside other sites elsewhere in the Chicama Valley, as well as in the nearby Moche and Jequetepeque valleys, potentially clarifying regional exchange networks and production relationships across this wider area of Moche territory. Researchers anticipate that more precise dating will allow for stronger comparative analysis between Cerro Mayal and other known ceramic production and consumption sites within the broader Moche cultural sphere.
Continued excavation at the site is also expected to further clarify the organisation of workshop-households, potentially addressing the detailed chaîne opératoire questions Pérez-Gómez has outlined, from raw material sourcing through to final vessel firing and distribution.
Conclusion
The renewed excavations at Cerro Mayal are steadily illuminating one of the most persistent gaps in understanding of Moche civilisation: not what its famous pottery depicts, but who made it, and how. As new radiocarbon dating refines the site's chronology and ongoing fieldwork continues to reveal the organisation of its workshop-households, Cerro Mayal is poised to offer a rare and valuable window into the artisans behind one of the ancient Americas' most visually rich and enduring ceramic traditions.
FAQ
Q: What has been discovered at Cerro Mayal? A: Archaeologists have uncovered ceramic moulds, potters' plates and production waste, along with adobe and stone walls suggesting the site contained combined living and working spaces for Moche potters.
Q: When was Cerro Mayal previously excavated? A: Earlier excavations were carried out in the late 1980s and mid-1990s by archaeologists Glenn Russell and Banks Leonard, whose radiocarbon dating provided the initial chronological reference for the site.
Q: Why is understanding Moche ceramic production significant? A: According to researchers, far less is known about the communities and workshops that produced Moche ceramics than about the imagery the pottery itself depicts, making production sites like Cerro Mayal especially valuable.
Q: What is the "chaîne opératoire" researchers are investigating? A: It refers to the complete production sequence of Moche pottery, including clay and pigment sourcing, mould creation, vessel forming, painting, firing, and how labour was organised within workshops.
Q: What is being done to improve dating at the site? A: The Chicama Archaeological Programme has sent new samples to a laboratory in the United States to obtain more precise radiocarbon dates than were possible during earlier excavations.
