The fascinating Moche period was characterized by a number of developments. Ceramics, textiles and metalwork improved greatly, architectural skills allowed the construction of huge pyramids and other structures and there was enough leisure tune for art and a highly organized religion. The Moche culture, a culture that has left impressive archaeological sites and some of the most outstanding pottery to be seen in Peru's museums, is named after the river which flows into the ocean just south of Trujillo. The Moche culture is especially known for its ceramics, such as "Vessel woth the stirrup-ring spout," and the Moches handiwork is considered the most artistically sensitive and technically developed of any found in Peru. The thousands of Moche pots preserved in museums are so realistically decorated with figures and scenes that they give us a very descriptive look at life during . Pots were molded into lifelike representations of people, crops, domestic or wild animals, marine life and houses. Other pots like "Vessel" were painted with scenes of both ceremonial and everyday life. From these pots, archaeologists know that Moche society was very class conscious. This particular ceramic is decorated in reddish brown over a white background with a Moche priest performing a ritual beneath a starry sky. Such a ceramic would have been actually used in a ...