Highly Decorated Moche Throne Room Fit for a Queen Discovered
Archaeologists excavating ruins in Pañamarca in Peru have discovered what is being described as a throne room. The site is home to the Moche, a Peruvian culture that died out over 1,500 years ago.
The Moche dominated the coastal region in northern Peru, and are famed for their highly decorative painted designs, filled with lurid details. The new discovery certainly fits that description, according to the announcement made on Pañamarca Digital.
The excavation is part of a series of projects under the banner of the Archaeological Landscapes of Pañamarca. The throne room is formed of the baked clay and mud walls known as adobe, and is described by the project director Jessica Ortiz Zevallos as the “Sala del Imaginario Moche,” the Room of Moche Imagination.
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The walls and pillars of the room are decorated in four separate sections, each showing a powerful woman who is clearly something akin to a Moche queen. She is shown receiving gifts and granting audiences, and also seated upon a throne.
Other decorations include depictions of crescent moons and sea creatures, and the archaeologists believe this is not mere decoration. Other finds in the chamber suggest a woman of high importance used this place as her audience chamber.
Excavations are ongoing.
Header Image: Some of the new painted walls found in the Room of Moche Imagination. Source: Lisa Trever / Pañamarca Digital.
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