ABSTRACT
The tomb robbers had struck gold in 1989-a magnificent funerary mask, fine ornaments, and beautifully fashioned clay vessels. For weeks, they had been digging surreptitiously into the adobe pyramid on the banks of the Lambayeque River near Sipán on Peru’s North Coast, home of the ancient Moche civilization. Rumors of great wealth swept the community. Fortunately for archaeology, reports of the sensational finds reached the ears of local archaeologist Walter Alva. He rushed to the pyramid, posted armed guards, and saved the richly decorated burials of hitherto unknown Moche lords. For months, Alva and a team of conservators labored over not one but three royal burials, deposited in elaborate brick burial chambers, one above the other. The result was a triumph of fine-grained archaeological excavation, and of meticulous conservation of artifacts so fragile that they had to be lifted in blocks, then separated in the laboratory.
