ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how time was materialized and politicized through dedication and termination rituals at the Moche ceremonial center of Huaca Colorada in the Jequetepeque Valley of northern Peru. Signatures of commemorative rites and ritualized time-reckoning are compared to recurring activities at the site as reflected in middens and household reoccupations. Focusing on the transition from the Late Moche (A.D. 650–800) to the Early Lambayeque Period (A.D. 800–920), which was marked by abrupt changes in ritualism and monumental construction, the case study reveals that the effects of religious reformation appear to have been superficial. Macro-scale political and religious disruptions minimally altered quotidian lifeways, temporal regimes, and practical dispositions. Data from Huaca Colorada demonstrate that archaeologists have much to gain in comparing quotidian “taskscapes” as preserved archaeologically with symbolically charged landscapes of public ceremonialism and social memory.
