The ancient cultures of Peru - Chavin, Cupisnique, Salinar, Viru, Moche, paracas, Nasca, Lambayeque, Hurai, Chimu and Inca - produced ceramics, textiles, metalwork and sculpture. Published to coincide with an exhibition organized by the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, this volume presents over 160 items from Lima's Larco Collection, each accompanied by explanatory text.

The Museo's collection, begun in 1926, encompasses more than 50,000 unique pieces, with a high concentration of figural ceramics in pristine condition, but also including examples of textiles, along with exquisite work in precious metals, stone and wood representative of several pre-Inca cultures from throughout Peru. Rafael Larco Hoyle, the museum's founder is considered the discoverer and one of the first scholarly chroniclers of the previously forgotten Moche and Chimu cultures which preceded and greatly influenced the legendary Inca civilization so closely associated with the splendor of Pre-Columbian Peruvian civilization. -- Publisher's blurb.

Astonishing gold treasures from Peru's Larco museum shown for the first time in Germany.

Three studies on the divine world of the Mochica civilization by anthropologists Krzysztof Makowski, Milosz Giersz y Patrycja Prazdka, based on the Iconographic analysis of the ceramic representations of the Moche gods from the Larco Museum collection. Includes an illustrated catalogue of Mochica deities of the collection.

Exhibition on one of the most important civilizations of ancient Peru, established in the northern coastal region between the 1st-8th centuries, AD. Explores the fine line drawings found in Mochica pottery, which can be used to understand the sacrificial ceremonies. Also looks at the uses of various other ceremonial pieces such as jewelry, headdresses, knives and bowls.