Crafted of gold, a spider with a body 

 in thefonn of a human head sits in 

 the middle of its web. This intricate 

 bead contains three small gold 

 balls, here hidden from view, that 

 gave it a rattling sound. 



Susan Einstein 



seem to date to about a.d. 290. While ex- 

 cavating the offerings, we found a fourth, 

 somewhat earUer tomb containing the re- 

 mains of a man between forty-five and 

 fifty-five years old, also richly endowed 

 with grave goods, including a necklace of 

 gold beads in the form of spiders on their 

 webs, anthropomorphic figures of a crab 

 and a feline, scepters, an octopus pectoral 

 with gilded copper tentacles, and numer- 

 ous other ornaments and objects. Nearby 

 we found the body of a young, sixteen- to 

 eighteen-year-old woman next to a sacri- 

 ficed llama. This tomb may also have be- 

 longed to a warrior priest, but not all the 

 identifying elements are there. Possibly, 

 this is simply because it dates to an earlier 

 period than the depictions we have of the 

 sacrifice ceremony, which are all from 

 after a.d. 300. 



Moche civihzation collapsed suddenly, 

 probably as a result of one or more of the 

 natural cataclysms that periodically devas- 

 tate coastal Peru — earthquake, flooding, 

 or drought. The Moche had no writing 

 system, so they left no records we can 

 hope to decipher They disappeared before 

 Europeans reached the New World and 

 could leave us eyewitness accounts. Yet 

 with the scientific excavation of these 

 royal tombs, we have gained an intimate 

 portrait of some of their most powerful 

 lords. Work at Sipan continues, now at a 

 promising location near the tomb of the 

 bird priest. As we dig more deeply, we 

 look forward to our next encounter D 



34 Natural History 5/94 



