During that time, the Mochicans seemed to have been contacted or infiltrated by "gods" who descended upon them in what we've come to know as flying saucers or UFOs.
The evidence for the "invasion(s)" is derived from Mochica art and legend, which are available from many Central American scholars, one of the best being Elizabeth P. Benson, whose book, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru [Praeger Publishers, NY, 1972], is our main source for the following....
(Elizabeth P. Benson was the Curator of the R. W. Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. She is also the author of "The World of the Maya.")
Ms. Benson writes [Page 30], "The ethnographic literature of South America is full of references to a creator god, or a supreme god, who is the sun, as well as to" a deity who sends his body out from himself" [emphasis ours]."
This deity is represented here, in a dipper or "corn-popper" [Page 31]:
(Note the similarity, especially the eyes, to alien entities reported in some UFO sightings of the 1960s and beyond.)
Here is a representation of a Mothman-like creature, called a hummingbird runner:
Ms. Benson writes [Page 50], "Do the animal-headed runners represent activity in the symbolic realm? In two of the animal-headed scenes, the destination is shown - a pyramid or temple...[where] the deity sits on top of the temple, so that animal-headed runners seem to be messengers or servants of the deity."
This pottery (front and back pictured) shows the deity, with a two-headed "sky monster" arched ovr his head, surrounded by UFOs (in the sky) and creatures that have descended from the UFOs [Page 61]:
A "radiant god" surrounded by UFOs (or other planets) is pictured here [Page 107]:
And this pottery shows a group of bean-runners/cutters in a panic because of a bevy of flying saucers approaching them from the sky [Page 126]:
Burial tombs have been found, and one of a Warrior-Priest contained a "boy" with a deformed skull and abnormal facial features {Page 135].
Circular mounds have been located, and one in the Viru Valley had a ramp, which indicates that the Mochica, as did other AmerIndians, valued or held sacred hill and mountains that offered access to the gods (or the vehicles of the gods [Page 98].
Erich Von Daniken has addressed these intrusions from extraterrestrials, who appeared as gods to humankind and have been reported as such over the millennia.
And while his "theories" are usually discounted by academia and science, there are those in serious disciplines who've come to similar conclusions that are accepted by main-stream science because the findings are couched in professional caveats.
Ufologists don't have the patience or acumen to present their findings in those same terms, and thus extant UFO visitations are ignored by persons needing the veneer of certitude.
Ms. Benson's book doesn't reference UFOs or flying saucers and certainly not extraterrestrials, but it does show, by reading between the lines, that the Mochica seemed to have contact with UFOs and extraterrestrials.
But you decide....
