Looters Strip Archaeological Heritage of Mayan and Moche Civilizations
posted on April 28th, 2011 in Archaeology, Northern Kingdoms of Peru, Peru
Ai Apaec, the Moche Decapitator
Looters Strip Latin America of Archaeological Heritage
A century after Machu Picchu’s rediscovery, ancient Mayan and Moche sites are being ransacked for tourist baubles
March 21 2011
The Guardian
The 100th anniversary of the rediscovery of Machu Picchu will highlight the current ransacking of the area’s archaeological treasures.
Etched into the surviving art of the Moche, one of South America’s most ancient and mysterious civilizations, is a fearsome creature dubbed the Decapitator. Also known as Ai Apaec, the octopus-type figure holds a knife in one hand and a severed head in the other in a graphic rendition of the human sacrifices the Moche practiced in northern Peru 1,500 years ago.
For archaeologists, the horror here is not in Moche iconography, which you see in pottery and mural fragments, but in the hundreds of thousands of trenches scarring the landscape: a warren of man-made pillage. Gangs of looters, known as huaqueros, are ransacking Peru’s heritage to illegally sell artifacts to collectors and tourists…