The Moche: The Painted Kingdom of Peru

On the desert coast of Peru, centuries before the Inca, the Moche built a civilization of extraordinary artistry — and extraordinary engineering. They tamed the driest desert on Earth with irrigation canals, built pyramids of millions of mud bricks, and created pottery so detailed it reads like a comic book of their world. In this episode of Empires & Economics: The irrigation economy: how the Moche turned desert into farmland Guano and the fertilizer trade that made the coast bloom The craft economy: pottery, metalwork, and specialized workshops The pyramid builders: labor, tribute, and elite control The El Niño collapses that ended Moche power Sources: Moche iconography, Moseley (1992), Quilter (2002), Shimada (1994), Chapdelaine (2011) #Moche #AncientHistory #EconomicHistory #Peru #MochePottery #Andes #HistoryDocumentary #AncientEconomics #EmpiresAndEconomics #AncientHistory #EconomicHistory #HistoryDocumentary #AncientEconomics