The painted throne room of the Moche female leader is located in

A richly painted throne room with densely packed columns has been excavated at the Moche complex of Panamarca in northwestern Peru. The murals and images on the painted throne suggest that the hall was used by a high-ranking female leader associated with a moon goddess.

Panamarca is the southernmost monumental city of the Moche culture, founded around 550 AD on a hilltop in the lower part of the Nipeña Valley. The main monumental building is a stepped platform made of adobe bricks. Below the hill are two large adobe platforms, an adobe walled plaza and several other adobe and brick buildings. The city is known for its brightly colored murals, the first of which was discovered in 1958.

The Panamarca Archaeological Landscape Project, a multidisciplinary collaboration between Peruvian and U.S. researchers, has been investigating the site since 2018. The 2022 archaeological season uncovered a pair of murals depicting two-faced figures wearing headdresses and holding feather fans. These two-faced figures are the only such figures ever discovered in Moche art.

The Queen’s throne room contains murals depicting the Queen, a unique find unknown in the Moche archaeological record. The walls and columns of this space, known as the Moche Hall of Imagination, depict scenes of a female ruler: a woman on a throne conversing with a bird-man, a crowned woman holding up her goblet, and a crowned woman wielding a scepter and snake-shaped rattles leading a procession of men carrying textiles. Other paintings found in the hall include a figure with a human body but spider legs holding a goblet, and an entire workshop of women weaving and weaving.

Inside the throne is another depiction of a female ruler, this time wearing a crown and holding a crescent-shaped rattle.

Scholars will debate whether the woman painted on the throne room wall is human or a mythical figure (a priestess, goddess, or queen). But the physical evidence of the throne, including the erosion of its back support and the recovery of greenstone beads, fine thread, and even human hair, clearly indicates that it was occupied by a real person—all evidence pointing to a seventh-century female Banamacan leader.

Another major discovery from this season’s excavations was a new monumental building in the square, featuring another previously unknown iconographic motif: a snake wrapped around a human leg.

The Sala de las Serpientes Trenzadas (Serpentine Hall) also features broad, square columns. Many are painted with images of snakes intertwined with human legs, an unusual motif in Moche art. Other surfaces are decorated with images of warriors, anthropomorphic weapons, and giant beasts pursuing humans. The Sala de las Serpientes Trenzadas underwent many renovations, including large material offerings (most notably textiles), burnings, elaborate floor paving, and painting of previously decorated walls. “The hall was prominently located above the plaza, almost like a box in a theater or stadium, from which to observe what was happening below, while also providing privacy for privileged occupants,” explains Michele L. Koons, an archaeologist at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

As with all of Pañamarca’s murals, these will be covered to protect them from vandalism and will not be open to the public. The first murals discovered in the 1950s began to decay after being exposed to the air and are now beyond repair. At the end of each excavation season, the exposed remains are covered with roofs and windbreaks to ensure the preservation of the painted surfaces and adobe bricks. Everything they find is documented with watercolors, scans, and digital renderings, and shared with the world on the Pañamarca Digital website.