Art - Part 3

Moche Pottery

The Moche lived in northern Peru from about 100 to 800 AD, before the Inca Empire.  Their graves have been excavated by archaeologists.  These graves contained pottery.  What the Moche considered appropriate subjects for their pottery was very different from what we're used to from European art.  Above, this naked man is a tame example.  Now, the Greeks and Romans created a lot of sculptures of nude men, so what's different about Moche pottery?

The Greeks and Romans didn't focus on the penis, but the Moche did, like the spout of this Moche pot.

A drinking vessel.  The upper rim is perforated, so you can't drink from the rim.  You have to drink from the penis spout.

Some pots depicted sex.  What was unacceptable in Western art seems to have been a standard subject for the Moche, like this blowjob.

Another blowjob.

Surprisingly, vaginal sex is almost never depicted, but many of the pots depict anal sex.  Was gay sex another standard subject for the Moche?  Apparently so.

Another pot depicting anal sex.

A pottery figure pleasuring himself with a dildo.  We have to wonder whether public blowjobs, gay sex and dildos were commonplace in Moche society.

Finally, some of the pots depicted dead men masturbating.  Apparently, in Moche religion, after you died you could still jerk off in the afterlife.

We end with another dead man jerking off.  That sounds like a very comforting religion.