The Moche civilization (alternatively, the Mochica culture, Early Chimu, Pre-Chimu, Proto-Chimu, etc.) flourished in northern Peru with its capital near present-day Moche and Trujillo, from about 100 AD to 800 AD, during the Regional Development Epoch. While this issue is the subject of some debate, many scholars contend that the Moche were not politically organized as a monolithic empire or state. Rather, they were likely a group of autonomous polities that shared a common elite culture, as seen in the rich iconography and monumental architecture that survive today.
Moche society was agriculturally based, with a significant level of investment in the construction of a network of irrigation canals for the diversion of river water to supply their crops. Their culture was sophisticated; and their artifacts express their lives, with detailed scenes of hunting, fishing, fighting, sacrifice, sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies. The Moche are particularly noted for their elaborately painted ceramics, gold work, monumental constructions (huacas) and irrigation systems.
Humanity peeled from our bones
Deprived of integuments that make us real
Shadows of flesh to maintain the system
Our own blood splashes as we kneel
So meticulously machined
Into these obedient devices
Puppets, fine tuned, submissive drones
Replicas of each other, clones
We're dormant accumulations of flesh
In a crimson filtered twilight
Mute witnesses to the game
Wrenches to keep the bolts of lies tight
We're the fabric concealing the stains
The red tainted existence
The gullibles to bless your sins away
Rags to wipe your blooded trails
We give in to the atrophy
To the twining of self-thought knowledge
The purpose of the human mind reviled
Everlasting ignorance realized
The scarlet flood that inundates our powerless thoughts
Defenseless minds with the lies overfed
Every thought stained, defiled