Architecture

Adobes (sun dried mudbrick) were the most commonly used Moche building material. Stone set in mud, however, as well as cane and mud (quincha) were used to construct the homes of poorer people.

Urban settlements are typified by public buildings constructed on platforms, with enclosures decorated by richly-colored murals or friezes, and gabled or shed roofs supported by pillars, pilasters or columns. Windows were set low or high and, in general, doorways had high thresholds. These buildings served either public or private ceremonial functions.

Around and among these buildings stood the residences of the governing elite, built of adobe with plastered walls and carefully finished floors. Many walls had niches. Next to these houses, some of which may have been grouped together to form districts, were the homes of artisans, such as potters and metal workers. We don't know where administrators and traders had homes, although these types of structures are more evident in the final phase of Moche at the site of Galindo in the Moche valley and at Pampa Grande in Lambayeque.

Agriculture

Without irrigation canals, life in the coastal valleys would have been impossible. In the Lambayeque valley alone, scholars estimate that 35 less land is cultivated today than by ancient Peruvians 1,000 years ago. There are several reasons for this: first, the characteristics of the irrigation canals and depopulation following the European conquest, coupled with accelerated desertification. The variety of field systems indicates that the Moche controlled the quantity of water for their crops. Crops cultivated by the Moche include all those domesticated in the Andes in general, such as maize, squash and beans.