The pottery depicts a male nobleman standing on a mountain. He wears elaborate clothing, a shield and a club. His headgear has the shape of a sacrificial knife. This pottery tells the story of noble warriors who competed in duels to sacrifice their lives to the gods of fertility. During excavations at the Huaca de la Luna, the main sanctuary of the southern Moche, skeletons of these warriors were found. Some of them had healed bone fractures, so it can be assumed that they had participated in such duels several times before they died. Such rituals are recorded on painted vessels of the Moche. The Moche culture extended over at least 600 km along the northern coast of Peru. For some years now, archaeologists have been dividing this culture into "southern Moche" and "northern Moche", as the material culture is clearly different, but nevertheless has connecting elements - among others the stirrup spout vessels. The political structure of the Moche can best be described as several small kingdoms ruled by a local elite, which were proabably related through marriages and other relations, but politically independent. This elite also had religious functions. This means that the king was a sacred king and responsible for performing the great collective rituals for achieving fertility - rain in the Andes. For the entire Moche region, only a few female priestesses are documented. The princely tomb in San José de Moro in the Jequetepeque valley and the Señora de Cao near Trujillo are the most famous examples. In San José de Moro a wall painting was also found showing a female priestess performing a ritual.