tinued through the forth and gradually declined in the fifth. They expressed many aspects of their culture and daily life in their ceramics. Things like warriors, runners (people who run bags of beans were important to the ceremonial life), portraits, religion, gods, and animals were shown on vessels. Mochica I was a strong continuation of the late Cupisnique sculptural style. The forms are compact with little suggestion of action, and details are often rendered in incised lines. Faces are generalized, but individual personages are differentiated by costume and accessories, and by distinctive physical traits. The style was not very elaborate. Some slip painting was done and the simple designs were sometimes accented by incised lines. The designs are similar to those of the Salinar, but they sometimes used the geometric designs of the Recuay. In Mochica II they mastered the art of slip decoration and oxidation firing. The ornamentation continued to stay predominantly geometric with some figurative motifs. They did have some relief-decorated ceramics which “incorporated two concave sections made in the same mold, usually joined by a bread band of clay into which the stirrup spout was inserted.” This mold technique is first type seen in this culture. (figure 6) It continues to be used for all sculptural vessels. Sometimes the vessels would require two or more molds, some they used one mold twice. For highly ornamented vessels they would add headdresses and arms after the vessel was assembled and before it was fired. The Mochica III style used much more modeling of the forms and began to lean towards more realistic representations. They began to create highly polished black reduction wares. The oxidized orange ware with cream and red slip decoration was also being used in conjunction with the black ware. This was also the time in history when the Mochica peoples moved out of Moche and Chicama valleys and began to dominate neighb...
