by Aleksa K. Alaica & Alannagh Maciw
Direct lines of evidence for maternity are often absent in the archaeological record. On the North Coast of Peru, however, extensive iconographic depictions of pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding provide an important visual record to understand how motherhood was experienced among the Moche (CE200-900). In this paper, we present poignant examples of maternal depictions from the broader Moche iconographic corpus to compliment our bioarchaeological evidence from Huaca Colorada, a Late Moche (CE600-900) site in the southern Jequetepeque Valley. Burials of pregnant women, young mothers, and their infants attest to the value that these offerings, an in some instances sacrifices, held for ceremonial events. We argue that motherhood among the Moche was not a dichotomy between mothers and non-mothers, but rather structured through an ethos of care.