YOLA 08: The Lost Civilization of Peru - p2

breakthrough
But what did it mean? The first breakthrough came when archaeologist Dr. Steve Bourget discovered a collection of bones at one of the most important Moche huacas.

encased
Many of the skeletons were deeply encased in mud which meant the burials had to have taken place in the rain. Yet in this part of Peru it almost never rains.

deliberate
Bourget realized there had to be a deliberate connection between the rain and the sacrifices. It led him to a new insight into the Moche world. The Moche had practiced a form of ritual designed to celebrate or encourage rain.

moulded
The sacrifices were about making an unpredictable world more predictable. A harsh environment had moulded a harsh civilization with an elaborate set of rituals designed to ensure its survival.

collapsed
These discoveries answered one question – what the painted scenes were all about – but still left a central riddle: Why had Moche society finally collapsed?

drought
Evidence of the region's climatic history suggested that at around AD 560 to AD 650 there was a thirty-year period of exceptionally wet weather, followed by a severe drought lasting another thirty years.

torrential
Archaeologists found evidence of enormous rain damage at a Moche site. New building work had been interrupted and torn apart by torrential rain, and artifacts found in the damaged area dated to almost exactly that period.

engulfed
Evidence of drought was discovered. Huge sand dunes appeared to have drifted in and engulfed a number of Moche settlements around AD 600 to AD 650. The story all fitted together.

wiped them out
The evidence suggested the Moche had been hit by a double whammy: a huge climate disaster had wiped them out. For years this became the accepted version of events. The riddle of the Moche had been solved.