A common element in Moche military regalia was a coccyx, hip or loin protector, also known as a caudal shield. The small shield was strung around a warrior’s waist on a belt so that it hung down at the rear to cover the buttock area. It would have been worn with other protective clothing, such as helmet and shield. Both this and the bell feature a similar semicircular design motif, made of raised domes. This upper section of the coccyx protector and the whole of the bell were made using a folded sheet of silver or gold moulded to create the domes, leaving a space between where a round ceramic bead could be inserted. When the object moved it would make a rattling sound.

This coccyx protector is shaped like a sacrificial knife known as a tumi. Highly decorated tumi blades were most likely symbolic rather than for use in sacrificial ceremonies, but they became strongly associated with the motif of decapitation. Although pervasive throughout other ancient Peruvian cultures, during the Moche period the supernatural being known as the Decapitator, the Spider Decapitator, the Sacrificer, or the X Sacrificer, was a commonly used decoration on metalwork, ceramics and murals. The being often appears at the top of coccyx protectors, crescent-shaped bells, pendants and decorative discs.

Moche imagery shows both the Decapitator and the victim, usually in the form of a severed head held out in one of the deity’s hands. The tumi blade is almost always depicted and the victim is always human. However, in the Moche pantheon, the supernatural being can take seven forms: human, monster, bird, fish, spider, crab or scorpion.¹

Emanating from behind the figure on the crescent-shaped bell is a large X-shaped cross, which suggests the figure of the Spider Decapitator. With a ferocious, slightly open mouth and bulging eyes, and typically wearing only a loincloth and elaborate headdress, he can be viewed as a spider at the centre of its web.² Decapitator imagery can best be interpreted in terms of Moche warfare tactics, where the object was to take opponents as ritual sacrifices, rather than simply killing them in battle. During military incursions, warriors would capture and bind prisoners, then return home with them so that they could be used as sacrificial offerings. Since spiders exhibit analogous behaviour—they bind insects caught in their webs and remove them to their nest—the creatures became an appropriate motif for the sacrificer being.³

Simeran Maxwell

1. Alana Cordy-Collins, ‘Archaism or tradition? The decapitation theme in Cupisnique and Moche iconography’, Latin American Antiquity, vol. 3, no. 3, September 1992, p. 208.

2. Elizabeth P. Benson, The worlds of the Moche on the north coast of Peru, Austin: University of Texas Press 2012, pp. 65–66.

3. Cordy-Collins, p. 217.

A common element in Moche military regalia was a coccyx, hip or loin protector, also known as a caudal shield. The small shield was strung around a warrior’s waist on a belt so that it hung down at the rear to cover the buttock area. It would have been worn with other protective clothing, such as helmet and shield. Both this and the bell feature a similar semicircular design motif, made of raised domes. This upper section of the coccyx protector and the whole of the bell were made using a folded sheet of silver or gold moulded to create the domes, leaving a space between where a round ceramic bead could be inserted. When the object moved it would make a rattling sound.

This coccyx protector is shaped like a sacrificial knife known as a tumi. Highly decorated tumi blades were most likely symbolic rather than for use in sacrificial ceremonies, but they became strongly associated with the motif of decapitation. Although pervasive throughout other ancient Peruvian cultures, during the Moche period the supernatural being known as the Decapitator, the Spider Decapitator, the Sacrificer, or the X Sacrificer, was a commonly used decoration on metalwork, ceramics and murals. The being often appears at the top of coccyx protectors, crescent-shaped bells, pendants and decorative discs.

Moche imagery shows both the Decapitator and the victim, usually in the form of a severed head held out in one of the deity’s hands. The tumi blade is almost always depicted and the victim is always human. However, in the Moche pantheon, the supernatural being can take seven forms: human, monster, bird, fish, spider, crab or scorpion.¹

Emanating from behind the figure on the crescent-shaped bell is a large X-shaped cross, which suggests the figure of the Spider Decapitator. With a ferocious, slightly open mouth and bulging eyes, and typically wearing only a loincloth and elaborate headdress, he can be viewed as a spider at the centre of its web.² Decapitator imagery can best be interpreted in terms of Moche warfare tactics, where the object was to take opponents as ritual sacrifices, rather than simply killing them in battle. During military incursions, warriors would capture and bind prisoners, then return home with them so that they could be used as sacrificial offerings. Since spiders exhibit analogous behaviour—they bind insects caught in their webs and remove them to their nest—the creatures became an appropriate motif for the sacrificer being.³

Simeran Maxwell

1. Alana Cordy-Collins, ‘Archaism or tradition? The decapitation theme in Cupisnique and Moche iconography’, Latin American Antiquity, vol. 3, no. 3, September 1992, p. 208.

2. Elizabeth P. Benson, The worlds of the Moche on the north coast of Peru, Austin: University of Texas Press 2012, pp. 65–66.

3. Cordy-Collins, p. 217.