CAMBRIDGE, MA.- In the coastal lowlands of northern Peru, the Moche archaeological culture flourished from about A.D. 100 to 800. Moche culture is known for its vividly painted and realistically modeled ceramics. A new volume in the award-winning Peabody Museum Collection Series presents a refreshing analysis of Moche works from the magnificent collection at Harvard’s Peabody Museum. In the richly illustrated The Moche of Ancient Peru: Media and Messages, archaeologist Jeffrey Quilter gives readers a thorough introduction to this fascinating culture and explores current thinking about Moche politics, history, society, religion, and art. The Peabody’s collection became a means for Quilter to investigate how the Moche used various media, particularly ceramics, to convey messages about their lives and beliefs. In The Moche of Ancient Peru, Quilter provides a critical examination of many commonly held interpretations of Mo