Los contextos urbanos de producción artesanal en el complejo arqueológico de las huacas del Sol y de la Luna

The excavations of the three last occupational floors of the Urban Nucleus at Huacas of the Sun and the Moon in the Moche Valley have allowed us to register at least four craft production centers. Four following lines of evidence allow us to establish that they are centers of specialized production: (1) these centers are placed in definite spaces within a multifunctional residential area; (2) the productive activities are repeated on more than two occupational floors; (3) the volume of production is far greater than the needs of family consumption; other products, given their quality and symbolism, were produced for members of the Moche elite, and; (4) production instruments and products from several production steps have been registered.This greater specialization and its control through residential units at the site allow us to hold that the specialists were associated with corporate groups and that this new system of social and productive organization was produced as consequence of the collapse of the theocratic structure of Moche society; this resulted in attempts by this society to look for a new social model, one that was more civic, and in which urban groups began to acquire a greater economic power.