The Many Ways of Being Human

8.10

Chavín, Moche, and Nazca

A clay vessel the size of two fists carries the face of one particular man on Peru's north coast, heavy-lidded, with discs in his stretched earlobes, pressed from a mold. His name, his language, and any writing of his are lost. The chapter follows Chavín, Moche, and Nazca through canals, cloth, and the Nazca lines, cultures known only by names borrowed from places.