quality:corruption
Early Intermediate Period

The Early Intermediate Period lasted from about 200 BCE to 600 CE. Late in the First Horizon, the Chavín culture began to decline, and other cultures, predominantly in the coastal areas, began to develop. The earliest of these was the Paracas culture, centered on the Paracas Peninsula of central Peru. Active from 600 BCE to 175 BCE, their early work clearly shows Chavín influence, but a locally distinctive style and technique developed. It was characterized by technical and time-consuming detail work, visually colorful, and a profusion visual elements. Distinctive technical differences include painting on clay after firing, and embroidery on textiles. One notable find is a mantle that was clearly used for training purposes; it shows obvious indications of experts doing some of the weaving, interspersed with less technically proficient trainee work.

The Nazca culture of southern Peru, which is widely known for the enormous figures traced on the ground by the Nazca lines in southern Peru, shared some similarities with the Paracas culture, but techniques (and scale) differed. The Nazca painted their ceramics with slip, and also painted their textiles. Nazca ceramics featured a wide variety of subjects, from the mundane to the fantastic, including utilitarian vessels and effigy figures. The Nazca also excelled at goldsmithing, and made pan pipes from clay in a style not unlike the pipes heard in music of the Andes today.

The famous Nazca lines are accompanied by temple-like constructions (showing no sign of permanent habitation) and open plazas that presumably had ritual purposes related to the lines. The lines themselves are laid out on a sort of natural blackboard, where a thin layer of dark stone covers lighter stone; the lines were thus created by simply removing the top layer where desired, after using surveying techniques to lay out the design.

In the north of Peru, the Moche culture dominated during this time. Also known as Mochica or Early Chimú, this warlike culture dominated the area until about 500 CE, apparently using conquest to gain access to critical resources along the desert coast: arable land and water. Moche art is again notably distinctive, expressive and dynamic in a way that many other Andean cultures were not. Knowledge of the period has been notably expanded by finds like the pristine royal tombs at Sipán.

The Moche very obviously absorbed some elements of the Chavín culture, but also absorbed ideas from smaller nearby cultures that they assimilated, such as the Recuay culture and the Vicús. They made fully sculpted ceramic animal figures, worked gold, and wove textiles. The art often featured everyday images, but seemingly always with a ritual intent.

In its later years, the Moche came under the influence of the expanding Huari empire. The Cerro Blanco site of Huaca del Sol appears to have been the Moche capital. Largely destroyed by natural events around 600 CE, it was further damaged by Spanish conquistadors searching for gold, and continues with modern looters.