Christopher Donnan Publishes Book on Moche Tomb

Christopher B. Donnan, professor emeritus of the Cotsen Institute and the department of anthropology at UCLA, has authored La Mina: A Royal Moche Tomb, published by the University of New Mexico Press. The book includes more than 200 color images of the archaeological treasures unearthed at La Mina, an “extraordinarily rich tomb that was looted on the north coast of Peru in 1987,” according to the announcement. The book has been called a “monumental achievement and an incomparable contribution to the field of Andean archaeology and art history,” by Joanne Pillsbury, editor of Moche Art and Archaeology in Ancient Peru.

For more than fifty years Donnan has studied the Moche civilization, which flourished between 100 and 700 AD in northwestern Peru, combining a systematic analysis of Moche art with numerous archaeological excavations. He is the author of several monographs from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, including Chotuna and Chornancap: Excavating an Ancient Peruvian Legend (2012), and Moche Tombs at Dos Cabezas (2007). He is also co-author of several other publications by the Cotsen Institute Press, including Pacatmu Papers (1986), with Guillermo A. Cock, and Moche Fineline Painting From San Jose de Moro (2007), with Donna and Donald McClelland. More information on these volumes can be found here.