The Moche dead were interred with a wide variety of regalia. Most common amongst these items found in tombs are jewellery—forehead, nose, ear and lip ornaments, headdresses and necklaces—but other adornments, such as masks, have also been discovered. Moche funerary masks are markedly different to those found in other cultures’ tombs (cats 123, 124, 147, 148). Unlike Sicán-Lambayeque masks, which have a distinct flat form with tear-drop-shaped eyes, and Chimú cloth masks, the Moche variety have a rounded fuller face with realistic noses and mouths. They resemble the size and shape of ancient Peruvian faces. The masks are so lifelike and comparable in many ways to Moche portrait head stirrup vessels that they might have been made to resemble particular individuals (cats 93–97).

Moche masks are often decorated with additional facial adornment, providing clearer insights into how various items were worn. This burial mask intern has a mouth guard concealing the lower section of the jaw. Small copper–gold discs attached to it cover the jaw and cheeks. At a glance they give the appearance of the curly hairs of a beard. Mouth guards like this are rare in Moche art. In 1987 a plain version was found in Tomb One of the Lord of Sipán’s grave in the Lambayeque Valley. This was the first such discovery of its kind, and was found with hammered gold eye, nose and teeth coverings as well.¹

Along with the mouth guard, other facial decorations cover 
the forehead of this mask and down the bridge of its nose. 
A diamond-patterned band, possibly a textile headdress or cloth, sits above the face. It has a snake-skin pattern hammered into the gold band which is also fashioned in the diamond design of two intertwined snakes. The copper base of the mask has oxidised 
and turned green, while the jewellery elements are still bright gold. The eyes are likely to have been made from inlaid conch shell and obsidian.

Simeran Maxwell

1. See figs 89–92, Walter Alva and Christopher B. Donnan, Royal Tombs of Sipán, Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA 1993, pp. 88–90.

The Moche dead were interred with a wide variety of regalia. Most common amongst these items found in tombs are jewellery—forehead, nose, ear and lip ornaments, headdresses and necklaces—but other adornments, such as masks, have also been discovered. Moche funerary masks are markedly different to those found in other cultures’ tombs (cats 123, 124, 147, 148). Unlike Sicán-Lambayeque masks, which have a distinct flat form with tear-drop-shaped eyes, and Chimú cloth masks, the Moche variety have a rounded fuller face with realistic noses and mouths. They resemble the size and shape of ancient Peruvian faces. The masks are so lifelike and comparable in many ways to Moche portrait head stirrup vessels that they might have been made to resemble particular individuals (cats 93–97).

Moche masks are often decorated with additional facial adornment, providing clearer insights into how various items were worn. This burial mask intern has a mouth guard concealing the lower section of the jaw. Small copper–gold discs attached to it cover the jaw and cheeks. At a glance they give the appearance of the curly hairs of a beard. Mouth guards like this are rare in Moche art. In 1987 a plain version was found in Tomb One of the Lord of Sipán’s grave in the Lambayeque Valley. This was the first such discovery of its kind, and was found with hammered gold eye, nose and teeth coverings as well.¹

Along with the mouth guard, other facial decorations cover 
the forehead of this mask and down the bridge of its nose. 
A diamond-patterned band, possibly a textile headdress or cloth, sits above the face. It has a snake-skin pattern hammered into the gold band which is also fashioned in the diamond design of two intertwined snakes. The copper base of the mask has oxidised 
and turned green, while the jewellery elements are still bright gold. The eyes are likely to have been made from inlaid conch shell and obsidian.

Simeran Maxwell

1. See figs 89–92, Walter Alva and Christopher B. Donnan, Royal Tombs of Sipán, Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA 1993, pp. 88–90.