1974 paulsen - the thorny oyster and the voice of god: spondylus and strombus in andean prehistory

7/27/2019 1974 Paulsen - THE THORNY OYSTER AND THE VOICE OF GOD: SPONDYLUS AND STROMBUS IN ANDEAN PREHISTORY

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THE THORNY OYSTER AND THE VOICE OF GOD:SPONDYLUS AND STROMBUS IN ANDEAN PREHISTORYALLISON C. PAULSEN

An exchangenetwork basedon long-distance xport of Spondylusand Strombus, wo mollusksnativetocoastal Ecuador, united the sierra and coast of both Ecuador and Peru duringa long period of Andeanprehistory.Thegradualexpansionof the export areais sketched, usingevidence rom threesuccessiveperiods:(A) 2800 to 1100B.C., (B) 1100 to 100B.C., and(C)100B.C. toA.D. 1532. Eachof theseperiodscorrespondsnot only to an enlargement f the exchange phere,but also to a striking hange n thesociocultural tatusandrole of the two shellfish in highland Ecuadorand in Peru. This seriesof qualitativechanges s related toevolutionary ociopolitical developments n the centralAndes. Chdvins seen as a pristinestate, linked to thelater Huariand Inca empiresthrough their common use of Spondylusand Strombus hells as symbolsof theoracles hat were mportantntegrativemechanismsn theevolutiontoward arge-scaleocieties.PREHISTORICCONNECTIONS etween variousmajor regionsof the Andes are difficult totracethroughceramicrelationshipsand similarities, ince theseresemblances re not constantandare at best ephemeralwhen viewed through time. A special version of this problemexists inEcuador:pottery made on the coastshowsfew consistentties with ceramicsof the adjacent ierra.There is, however, considerableevidence to indicatethat from at least the second, and possiblyfrom as early as the thirdmillenniumbefore Christ,until after the arrivalof the Spanish n A.D.1532, people on the south coast of Ecuadorwere activelyengaged n exportingthe shells of thethorny oyster, Spondylus, and of the conch, Strombus, first to highlandEcuadorand later toevery part of the Peruviansierra and coast. There is now enough fragmentary videnceof thisAndeanexchange sphere to be able to traceits gradualexpansionfrom its earlylocal beginningsinto a vast network of long-distanceexchange of regionalspecialitiesthat, after A.D. 1, broughthighland obsidian andPeruviancopper to the Ecuadoriancoast in sufficientquantities o makeitappear o balancethe massivedistributionof nativeshell.Although Spondylus and Strombus are both marinemollusks,they occupy slightlydifferentecological zones: Strombus ives in intertidalwatersclose to the shore;Spondylus,however,clingsto reefs 20 to 60 feet below the surface of the ocean, andhence, underaboriginal onditions,can be collected only by experiencednativedivers Fig. 1). Mostsignificantly,both speciesinhabitonly tropicalwaters,and thus are not to be found aliveon the Andeancoast south of the Gulf ofGuayaquil. Hence, we know that every one of the many specimensof these shells discoveredarchaeologicallyn the Andeanhighlandsand the Peruvian oast must havebeencarried herefromits originalhome on the coast of Ecuador Keen 1958:76, 336; Olsson1961:152;PresleyNorton,personalcommunication).Wecan also be quite surethat as earlyas 100 B.C. the SantaElenaPeninsulaon the southcoastof Ecuadormust have been a center of this export. All the Spondylus fragmentsdepositedinpeninsularmiddens afterthat datehavehadtheircoloredinnermargins ut away,whilepracticallyno immaturespecimenshave been found there at all. On the otherhand, only immature hellsofSpondylus, or the colored portions of matureones, have been found in highlandEcuador or inPeru.The evolution of this exchangespherecan be tracedbyjuxtaposinga numberof separatepiecesof information romwidelyscatteredsourcesandcorrelating heminto a broadpicturewhich, likea pointillistpainting,can be seenmost clearlyfrom a distance,when its total effect transcendsanyof its component parts. This geographicallyheterogeneousevidence can be dividedinto threesuccessive ime periods,eachcorresponding o an expansion of the exchangearea.Eachperiodalsomarks a strikingchange in the socioculturalstatus and role of SpondylusandStrombusin the

Ecuadorian ierraand in Peru. These changesreflect majortrendsin Andeancommunicationandpoliticalevolution.The threeperiodsare:597


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Paulsen] THE THORNY OYSTER 599A. 2800 to 1100 B.C., when shell from coastal Ecuador was traded only as far as theEcuadorian ierra;B. 1100 to 100 B.C., when the tradingareaexpandedsouth, andthe Ecuadorian hellbecameentrenched n the cultureof the centralAndes;andC. 100 B.C. to A.D. 1532, when the total exchange areareached romQuitoto LakeTiticaca.The datafromeachperiodwill be interdigitatedby firstdescribing he shellassemblagen southcoastalEcuadorandany items of reverseexchangefoundthere.I shall then cite coevaldistributionand the sociocultural context of Spondylus and Strombus in areasaway from the Ecuadoriancoast. Since the shellsoften, but not always,occur as an associatedpair n these areas, he presenceof either should not be assumedwithout specificmention.Finally,I shalltry to assimilateall thisdiversematerialand attempt to come to some very generalconclusionsabout the two shellsandthe implicationsof their changingroles in Andeanprehistory.This concentrationupon items ofinterregional xchangemay draw attention to economic factorsthat are not alwaysemphasizednAndeanstudies.As yet we have little informationabout the specific traderoutes,meansof transportation,oractual mechanismsof exchangeinvolved in this long-distancemovement of local specialties.Thearchaeologicaldistribution of Spondylus and Strombus suggeststhat, in general,the main traderoutes between coastal Ecuador and Peru ranalong the Andeanspine, with secondarypathwaysbranching down the river valleys (Fig. 2). At least one ethnohistorian(Rostworowski 1970)believesthat Spondylusin bulk was shippedsouth to Peruby boat, but thereis now no evidenceto indicatehow early coastal shippingmayhavebegun.Aboriginal esselswereentirelycapableofmaking ong coastalvoyages, but the date when such craft were first introduced s stilluncertain(Clinton R. Edwards,personalcommunication).They were probablynot in use asearlyasperiodA, when contacts between the coasts of Ecuadorand Peru were almostnonexistent. It is alsoanopen questionwhether culturalfactors,and not the availabilityof seaworthytransport,dictatedany prehistoric choice between maritime and overlandexchange routes (Clinton R. Edwards,personal communication).Finally, it seems only reasonableto suppose that Andean exchange

systems,like Andeansociety itself, underwent undamental hangesduring he evolutionfrom thesmall-scale ocal communitiesof periodA to the enormouspan-Andean mpiresof periodC. Thus,we should not assumethat all the featuresof thisexchangepatternremainedunchangedduring he4000 yearsof its history.PERIODA: 2800-1100 B.C.

Spondylus andStrombussuppliedrawmaterial or both utilitarianobjects andfor ornaments nthe shell assemblageof the Valdivia complex in south coastal Ecuador (Meggers,Evans,andEstrada 1965:37, P1. 21), now dated from 2800 to 1700 B.C. (Betsy D. Hill, personalcommunication). It is interestingto note that at Loma Alta,the only inlandValdivia ite thus farreported (which dates from Valdivia 1 or 2, [Betsy D. Hill, personalcommunication] , the onlyshell objects found were two Spondylus nose rings (Norton 1971) and some beads (PresleyNorton, personalcommunication).Even a few kilometersfrom the sea, Spondylusartifactswereexclusivelyornamental.The shell assemblageof the Machalillaoccupation was apparentlynearlyidentical to that ofValdivia(Meggers,Evans,andEstrada1965:113). Machalillas believedto date no laterthan 1100B.C. (Paulsenand McDougle1974). At this time, there is no evidenceto suggest the presence oftradegoods on the SantaElenaPeninsula.At CerroNarrio,nearCailar n the southernEcuadorian ighlands,Spondylusbeads,pendants,and figurines were found in levels assigned to Early CerroNarrfo,but not in Late CerroNarriooccupations, leading to the conclusion that during the late occupation there was a decrease ncontacts with the seacoast (Collier and Murra 1943:81-82). Unfortunately, these excavationsantedatedboth radiocarbondatingmethods and the definition of comparable equences n relatedareas, while two more recent appraisalsof the CerroNarriomaterial(Lanning 1963:215-219)(Braun 1971) are somewhat at variance n drawinga chronologicalboundarybetween EarlyandLate levels in terms of the coastalsequence.Nevertheless, he CerroNarrfoSpondylusprobably


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600 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 39, No. 4, 1974

AAMachalilla AValdivia ALA LIBERTAD *CHANDU CA AREL OR

TUMS * AA*TALARA

AuayurcoAA

A e'uoAoAhavifn

CHANCAY APACHACAMAC* 0 PIKILLAQTA

A A*PINILLA A

O 100 200 300 400Kilometers

Fig. 2. Location of sites in Ecuador and Peru.


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Paulsen] THE THORNY OYSTER 601

dates no later than the end of Machalilla,or about 1100 B.C., and some may be considerablyolder, as Braunhas suggested.No Spondylus or Strombusyet reportedfrom any archaeological ite in Peru can be securelydated before 1100 B.C., that is, before the end of the Machalillaoccupation of south coastalEcuador.However,perhapssuch specimens will turnup, if similaritiesbetweenMachalilla otteryand certain ceramics from Chavfnde Huantarand Kotosh reflect reciprocaldirect or indirectcontacts between the Ecuadoriancoast and the central Andean sierra(Paulsenand McDougle1974).

PERIODB: 1100-100 B.C.The cultural nformationfor the south coast of Ecuadorduring hisperiod s not yet completeenough to allow a descriptionof its shell assemblage.The only Spondylusthus far reported s ahighly stylized humanfigurine found in a late Engoroyburialat LaLibertad Bushnell1951:94).There is no evidence to supposethat anythingof period B on the Peninsularepresentsactualtrade from other areas,althoughone Engoroy site has yielded a sherd n the Cucupampa, r final

Huancarcuchu tyle from Cuenca (Lanning1968:42). Obsidian has not been found in Engoroycontexts (KarenStothert,personalcommunication),although t hasbeenreportedassociatedwithChorrera eramics,giving rise to a theory that both obsidianchippingandthe material tself wereimportedfrom MesoamericaduringChorrera imes. Thelackof obsidian n Engoroysitesdoes notsupport this theory. Moreover, the supposedly Mesoamericanobsidian has been called "astransparentas window glass"(Meggers1966:56), inadvertentlyhelping to confirma widely heldcontraryopinion that all the obsidianfoundarchaeologicallyn southcoastalEcuadorwasbroughttherefrom the northEcuadorianhighlands Wolf1892:358; Bushnell1951:68).AlthoughSpondylusis absentfrom LateCerroNarrfo, he export of shell from the Ecuadoriancoast continued and the exchange area apparentlyexpanded at this time. Both SpondylusandStrombus,in fact, underwenta majorapotheosisand becameattached to a centraldivinityat theceremonial center of Chavin de Huantar in the central Andes. Here the Tello Obelisk, afree-standingstela dating from ChavinC, or about 800 B.C., is covered with a complicatedprofusionof interrelatedmotifs in low relief that apparently mbodya shorthandencyclopediaofChavfncosmology. One of these motifs (Rowe 1967:Fig. 7, A-21) is recognizablya Strombus.Another Rowe 1967:Fig. 7, A-2)hasbeenidentifiedas a Spondylus(Lathrap1973:96). Each shellis embellishedwith mythical attributes and is thus to be consideredan intrinsicpart of Chavfniconography. It is especially surprisingo find these two mollusks from the coast of Ecuador nthis place and on this sculpture,not only becauseof their remoteprovenience,but alsobecauseallthe other floral and faunalemblemson the obelisk havebeen describedashavingemanated olelyfrom the AmazonBasin(Lathrap1970:77).The so-called "SmilingGod," a later version of the deity representedon the Tello Obelisk(Rowe 1967:84), is carved n relief on a slab that is also fromChavinde Huantar,but datesfromChavtnD, perhapsa couple of centuries ater (JohnH. Rowe, personalcommunication).Thisgodis portrayedwith only two hagiographic ttributes, a Strombus n his right hand anda Spondylusin his left (Rowe 1967:84, Fig. 21).Artifacts made of or representing he two Ecuadorianmolluskshavebeenfoundin manyEarlyHorizon sites throughout the centralAndes. For example, at Huayurco, a site describedas animportantmanufacturing nd tradingcenter west of the bend of the Marafnon,urialsassigned othe EarlyHorizoncontaineda necklace embellished with a half a dozenflat Spondyluspendants,each carvedin the shape of a stylized fish. Strombus trumpetsalso turnedup in these burials(Lathrap1970:108, P1.21). On the northcoast, the "PickmanStrombus," ngraved n the Chavinstyle, comes from Chiclayo(LarcoHoyle 1941:88, Fig. 174); at Malpasoon the centralcoast, acache of cut Spondylus shells dated between 950 and 650 B.C. was found on the top of a smallpyramid(Thomas C. Patterson, personalcommunication).Elsewhere n EarlyHorizonPeru, thebody of a "Cupisnique" tirrupspout pot representsa whole Spondylus(LarcoHoyle 1941, Fig.127), while another(Museumof the American ndian,New York#23/7099) hasa body consistingof a pairedSpondylusandStrombus.


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All this indicatesthat duringthe Early Horizon,Spondylusand Strombuswere elite insignia nceremonialcentersandin burialsn the sierraand coast of the centralAndes.PERIODC: 100 B.C.-A.D.1532

The Guangalaoccupationof the SantaElenaPeninsula 100 B.C.-A.D.800) and its successor,Libertad(A.D. 1000-1400) are now known in sufficient detail to supplyevidence about certainkindsof long-distanceexchange to the peninsuladuringthis period.Pendantsandbeads weretheonly artifactsmade of Spondylus in a large and variedGuangala hell assemblage hat includedcelts, weights,spoons,andnose rings.Strombuswas usedonly for tools (Bushnell1951:60-63).Spondylus figurinessimilarto the one in Bushnell's ate Engoroyburial n La Libertad,andatlatlhooks and pendantsof the same materialhave been found in a site assigned o the undatedJambelfcomplex, located on the coast of El Oro province n Ecuador Estrada,Meggers ndEvans1964, Fig. 7a, b; Fig. 8a, b; Fig. 9a, b), whose associatedintrusivesdate from no later thanGuangala1, or about A.D. 100 (Paulsenn.d.).Interestingly,no shell objectshave turnedup at the Pechicheor Garbanzal ites in the Tumbesarea of northwest Peru (Izumi and Terada 1966:64, 69), nor in coeval levels in the Talaraarea(James Richardson,personal communication).Neither do they occur in Daule and Tejarsites(Meggers1966:83), whose Guangala ntrusivesmay be slightly later than those in Jambelf.Thissuggests that the exchange route from the Peninsula to the sierraran east in a fairly narrowcorridor.In exchange for the massiveamount of nativeshell exported from the Ecuadoriancoast, thePeninsula now began to receive obsidian and copper. This reciprocalexchange began afterGuangala1, or aboutA.D. 200 (Paulsenn.d.). Obsidianwasnot found in a Guangala1 single-phasesite at San Pablo (Karen Stothert, personalcommunication),nor at a Guangala1 workshopatPichilingo,near Chanduy(Marcos1970). Onthe otherhand,obsidianscrapersurnup regularlyncontexts assignedto Guangala2 through 8 (Bushnell 1951:68), while obsidiancoreshave beenfound at Real(Bushnell1951 :68) andat a one-phaseGuangala8 site west of LaLibertad.Copper appearson the Peninsula or the first time duringthe Guangalaoccupation,probablyalso after Guangala1, since it has not been found in anylevel before Guangala . A copperneedleat Tigreand a copper punch at Palmarhave Guangala3 stratigraphic ssociations(Paulsenn.d.).Pins, nose rings, celts, and tweezers, among other Guangalaobjects,are as yet without specificphaseassociations.Copper s not native to the Ecuadorian oast. It hasbeenpointedout that all Guangala opperartifacts may have been broughtfrom the highlands Bushnell1951:72-74), while spectrographicanalysis suggeststhat copper objects from three areasin coastal Ecuador-Manabi,the GuayasBasin, and the Peninsula-all probablyshareda common source which has not been identified(Bushnell1951:71). Since copperhas been found at GarbanzalIzumi andTerada1966:69), onemay infer that copper was more widely distributedthan shell in sites around the Gulf ofGuayaquil.Certain features of Guangalapottery of Phases 1 through 5 appearto indicate some directconnection with CentralAmerica(Paulsen 1971). This simultaneitybetween CentralAmericansimilaritiesand the first appearanceof trade goods on the Peninsula may or may not be acoincidence.Copper s found earlieston the south coast of Peru at the end of the EarlyHorizon(Lanning1967:111).Spondylusand coppershareburialandother associations n Peruduring he EarlyIntermediateperiodcoeval with Guangala.For example,a burial at Cerrode Trinidadn Chancay,dating romLima 2 to 4 (Patterson 1966:122) and thus roughly contemporarywith Guangala2 to 5,containedone whole matureSpondylusshell, smoothed and ground,a necklaceof 48 Spondylusbeads, and about 200 more formerlysewed to a headdress, ome Spondylusnecklacespreaders,and a copper-and-goldface mask (Willey 1943:165-166). In fact, all through the EarlyIntermediateperiod Spondylus was popularalong the Peruviancoast in the form of ornamentsmade from whole immaturespecimensor from the red outsidelayerof the matureshell(Lanning1968:42).


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In contrast to the EarlyHorizon,neitherSpondylusnor Strombusarerepresented n potteryduring he Early Intermediateperiod.In MiddleHorizon2, contemporarywith Guangala6, 7, and 8 (Paulsenn.d.), SpondylusandStrombus continued to be associatedtogether and with copper. In Pinilla,near Ica, a MiddleHorizon 2 (Paulsen1968) burialwasaccompaniedby both workedand unworkedSpondylus,andby gold and copper ornaments.A MiddleHorizon2 cache at Pikillaqta n the lowerCuzcovalleyconsisted of "2 valvesof a Spondylusshell,a Strombus hell,anda copperbar"(Menzel1968:51).Specialnote should be madeof a wovenhanging romPachacamac,he centralcoastceremonialcenter wherean importantoraclewas located duringthe Middle and Late Horizons.One side ofthis hangingwas embellishedwith a series of whole immatureSpondylusshells, and the reversewith copper ornaments.It was apparentlypart of the ritual paraphernaliaurroundinga MiddleHorizonwooden figure(Kosok 1965:39) that embodied the physicalpresenceof the oracle.During the Libertadoccupation of the Santa Elena Peninsula,contemporarywith the LateIntermediateperiod in Peru, Spondylus beads continued to be associated with copper at LaLibertad Bushnell1951:99, 112), but importationof both copperandobsidianprobably aperedoff at this time, for both are reportedlyrare(Bushnell1951:115) and none have been found inLibertadstratigraphic ests (Paulsen n.d.). Thisnarrowingof extrapeninsular onnectionsis alsoreflected in the stylistic affinitiesof the Libertadpotterystyle, which haslinksonly as fardistantas Mantaand the GuayasBasin.One Libertad sherd has been found in a Sechurasite near Talari in northwestPeru(JamesRichardson,personalcommunication).This sherdis, at present, the only archaeological videnceof tradeby sea between EcuadorandPeru.A variety of evidencefrom Inca and early Spanishtimes, postdatingLibertad,helps fleshoutthe barebones of this artifactualcensus.The Incas used Spondylusshells,either whole, carved,ground-up,or cut in pieces, as offeringsat springs to bringabundantrainfallto newly plantedcrops (Rowe 1946:249). An early Quechuatext describes he wrathof a divinitywhen the Incadidnot bringhim a servingof Spondylus,the favorite food of the gods(Murra,1971).

Finally, a single-note trumpet made of a largeStrombusshell was used not only as a wartrumpet by the Incas,but is still blownrituallyby some Quechuasat certainpointsin the RomanCatholicmass (Rowe 1946:290).CONCLUSIONS

By arranging his fragmentaryevidence in a chronological mosaic more than three thousandyearslong, we can trace the gradualexpansionof the areaof export of SpondylusandStrombusfromits beginnings,possibly in Valdfvia imes,until its widestextent earlyin the Christian ra.The Ecuadorian hell already cited from Peruvian ites representsonly a smallsample of thosefinds mentionedin the literature.Whilethe volume of export from Ecuadorcannotbe estimatedwith any precision,we recognizethat it must havebeen of massiveproportions, ince the shellsnotonly accompaniedthe wide expansionof Chavfn,but had penetratedevery part of the Peruviansierraandcoast by the beginningof the EarlyIntermediateperiod.At theirsourceon the coast of Ecuador, he two kindsof shell were usedfor tools as well as forornaments,and they were nevera dyadic pair on the coast as they were away from their nativehabitat. Away from the coast or in Peru, however, Spondylus is almost invariablyprofoundlymodified and found in the form of small ornamentsor jewelry or in context suggestingelite orritualassociations.Strombuswas not carvedor otherwisemodified, but it wassometimes ncisedwith ritual themes. Yet the two mollusks were constantly pairedat Peruvian ites, not only asactual specimens of shell, but also in symbolic representationsn sculpturedand ceramic forms.Thesefeaturesof manufacture,usage, and associationsuggest that, althoughthe two specieswererituallylinked, the importanceof Spondyluslay immanent in the material tself, whileStrombus'role wasfunctional andperhaps ubordinate.

Until the middle of the second millenniumB.C.,Spondylus was tradedonly as far as Cafiar,where figurines oined the previousrepertoireof shellartifacts.At this earlyperiod, as throughoutsubsequentAndeanprehistory,both SpondylusandStrombusarefound asexchangegoodsonly attradecenterssituatedon majoravenuesof communication,reflecting he attractionof suchgoods


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to socially heterogeneousredistributivecenters that, almost by definition, contain elite socialgroups.Although there is no evidenceof tradeflowingreciprocallyback to the Ecuadorian oast at thistime, we need not assumethat perishablegoodswerenot exchanged.If this interregional xchangefollowed patternsnoted elsewhere, it could well have taken placein a ritual setting such as hasbeen noted in New Guinea,wheresuchreified surpluschangeshandsas a manifestexpressionof alatent adaptive function acting to integrate diverse ecological areas and thereby widen thesocioculturalbase(Lees 1967).The absence of Spondylus in late levels at Cerro Narrfo may signify that this eliteexchange-perhaps even this elite group-had shifted to other areasfartherto the south in Peru,where only a short time later Spondylusand Strombusnext appearas full-fledgedmembersof anelite ceremonialcomplex in the major center of Chavinde Huantar n the centralAndes. Thismarks the first appearanceof the Spondylus-Strombusdyad which continueduntil at least theeighth centuryA.D.This majorshift southwardwent hand in hand with strikingchanges n the cultural reatmentand context of both mollusksin Peru,as well as with a significantadvance n their status: as ritualemblems, their importance now transcended the simple facts of their foreign origin andconsequentrarity,althoughsuch considerationsundoubtedlyunderlaymuch of their originalvalueaselite insignia.Thesegeographical ndsocioculturalcontrastsbetweenperiod A and periodB also point up thevast differencesin scale between Chavinand all the previousAndeancultures,using the word"scale" as defined by Godfrey and MonicaWilson:"the number of people in relationand theintensity of those relations .. measuredby the proportionof economic cooperation n the formof ... exchange through trade and reciprocal goods," and of the size and intensity ofcommunications n both space and time (WilsonandWilson1968:25ff). Thedimensionof relativescale can help us put Chavin n its properperspective,sandwichedchronologicallybetweenearlysmall-scaleAndean societies and the late Huariand Incahighly centralizedstates, toward whichChavfnwasthe penultimatestep.IfphaseC Chavfnmakesexplicitemblematicreferences o the Pacificcoastof Ecuadoras well asto the Amazonianforest on the other side of the Andean sierra,one may well infer that thisideologicalintegrationof diversemarginalareasexpressesthe fact that culturalelements from atleast two widely separatedregionshad been drawninto an evolutionaryvortex in the centralAndes, and that from this vortex had emergedthe Chavfnart style as the highlyvisible apex of avast hidden substructureof somethingvery close to what Friedhas calleda "pristine tate"(Fried1967:231-235). In this process, Spondylus and Strombusfrom the Pacific coast and a wholecongeriesof fauna and flora from the tropicalforest were temporarilyconsolidatedinto an axialChavfnconfiguration hat servedas a kind of universaloint for a numberof areasby transmittingmany of their elements differentially,or centrifugally,out to parts of the greaterAndessomedistancefrom theiroriginal ources.AfterChavfnC, these ties weakened,SpondylusandStrombusbecamepartly disassociated,many of the other componentsshown in the ritualconfigurationonthe Tello Obelisk vanished or became transformed,and the phase C ritual assemblagewascompletelydisassembled.Pattersonhas suggestedthat the centralfigureat Chavfnde Huantarmay havebeenan oracle,first representedby the GreatImageof PhaseAB which wasthus the first in a line of such oraclesthat persistedas a continuousstrand n the fabricof Andeanreligionuntilhistoric times(Patterson1971:46). Now an oracleis more than a cosmic fortuneteller:such a figurealso fulfills multiplefunctionson many othersocioculturalevels. Forexample,in Ibogroups n west Africa, n anareawhere "no political superstructure,such as a federation, a confederacy, or a state existed"(Ottenberg 1958:296), oracles were located in strategic geographicalpositions with regardtocontacts with north, south, east, and west, and the oracle pattern "included religiousspecialists, . . diviners,medical men and priests, who travelleda considerabledistance outsidetheir own independentunits, sometimes making regulartours" (Ottenberg1958:298). The lbooracles were also deeply involvedin trading systems and facilitating"the distributionof trade


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goods, including food ... and (also) served to redistributethe populationfrom areas of highpopulation to areas of lower density"(Ottenberg 1958:311). Greekoracles, too, were consultedwhennew colonies wereto be established.Oracleshave appearedin many complex societies from Mesopotamia o Polynesia,but notmanyof the circumstances f theiroriginhavebeenretrieved rom the preliteratepast.All seem tohave developed at a stage in socioculturalevolution when religionwas being institutionalized(Gibson 1961:35). Wemight postulatethat a patternof oracleswould be likely to materializeparipassu with increasedpopulation density, growthof social stratification,and the appearanceof atruestate.Chavinexhibits all these evolutionarysymptoms.And the continuity proposedfrom the GreatImage of Phase AB at Chavinde Huantarthroughthe Middle Horizon to the Inca oracles atPachacamacs further strengthenedby a predictablyconsistent association betweenSpondylus,Strombus, and the oracle, reflecting a commensuratelyclose link between Andean economichistory and Andeancosmology.If Spondyluswasthe visualsymbolof thismultiplexpattern,thenStrombusmust haveprovidedboth the voice of the oracleandthe sound of the deity.One nearly unanswerablequestion remainsto be asked. Why were Spondylusand Strombussingledout to express so many layers of socioculturalsignificance?Neithermolluskcould havebeen an item of diet away from the seacoast. The reference to Spondylus as food of the gods ispeculiarlyappropriate:by the time one reached he highlands,only a supernatural igestioncouldhave eatenit and survived.Somewhat lamely one can only say that a combination of exotic provenienceand naturalpropertiesmust havehelped determine the specialstatus of these tropicalshellfish in the centralAndes.Strombus is a natural trumpet, while the forbiddingprotrusionsof the thornyoyster notonly set it apart from other marine mollusks, but are somehow suited to the powerfulgrotesqueries f the Chavfn tyle.Both animalsare also membersof a pool of biota seemingly nvestedwith mythic powers theworld around. For example, one of the two objects traded in the Trobriandkula ring was a

necklace calledsoulava,made from beads of Spondyluscollectedandfabricatedduringceremoniesincludingthe ritualblowing of a Strombustrumpet(Malinowski1961:367-375). AnotherChavinsupernatural,he eagle, is also found amongthe ceremonialmonuments n Washington,D.C., atthe recent end of a genealogytraceable o Bronze Age Greece, when it was a symbol of both thepowerand an oracle of Zeus. Weall know-or hope we know-that these globalcoincidencesareno more thanthat.This paperisa slightly altered version of one presented May 5, 1972 at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Societyfor American Archaeology in Bal Harbour, Florida.Acknowledgments. Clinton R. Edwards, Betsy D. Hill, Donald W. Lathrap, John V. Murra,Presley Norton,Thomas C. Patterson, James Richardson, and Karen Stothert have generously given me comments, criticisms, andaccess to unpublished data which have been incorporated in this paper. I am solely responsible for any omissionsor misinterpretation.

Braun, Robert1971 Cerro Narrio reanalyzed: the Formative as seen from the southern Ecuadorian highlands. Paperread atthe Primer Simposio de Correlaciones Antropol6gicas Andino-Mesoamericano, July, 1971, Salinas,Ecuador. To be published in the proceedings of the Symposium.Bushnell, G. H. S.1951 The archaeology of the Santa Elena Peninsula in south-west Ecuador. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge.Collier, Donald, and John V. Murra1943 Survey and excavations in southern Ecuador. Anthropological Series 35, Field Museum of NaturalHistory. Chicago.Estrada, Emilio, Betty J. Meggers,and Clifford Evans, Jr.1964 The Jambell culture of south coastal Ecuador. Proceedings of the United States National Museum115(3492):483-558. Washington, D.C.Fried, Morton H.1967 The evolution of political society. New York.


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Gibson, Ann Judith1961 Cresmology: a comparative study of oracles. Papers of the Kroeber Anthropological Association 24(Spring): 1 9-37. University of California, Berkeley.Izumi, Seiichi, and Kazuo Terada1966 Andes 3: excavations at Pechiche and Garbanzal, Tumbes Valley, Peru. Kadokawa Publishing, Tokyo.Keen, A. Myra1958 Sea shells of tropical west A merica. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.Kosok, Paul1965 Life, land and water in ancient Peru. Long Island University Press, New York.Lanning, Edward P.1963 A ceramic sequence for the Piura and Chiracoast, north Peru. University of California Publications inArchaeology and Ethnology 46(2): 135-284. Berkeley.1967 Peru before the Incas. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.1968 Report to the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Nucleo de Guayas. Mimeographed.Larco Hoyle, Raphael1941 Los Cupisniques. Lima. CasaEditora "La Cronica y Variedades," Lima, Peru.Lathrap, Donald W.1970 T/e upper Amazon. Thames and Hudson, London.1971 The tropical forest and the cultural context of Chavin. In Dumbarton Oaks Conference on Chavin,

edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, pp. 73-100. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Washington.1973 Gifts of the Cayman: some thoughts on the subsistence basis of Chavfn. In Variation in Anthropology,edited by Lathrap and Douglas. Illinois Archaeological Survey. Urbana. pp. 91-106.Lees, Susan H.1967 Regional integration of pig husbandry in the New Guinea highlands. Paper read to the MichiganAcademy of Sciences.Malinowski, Bronislav1961 Argonauts of the western Pacific. Paperback ed. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York.Meggers, Betty J.1966 Ecuador. Thames anidHudson, London.Meggers, Betty J., Clifford Evans, Jr., and Emilio Estrada1965 Early Formative period of south coastal Ecuador: the Valdivia and Machalilla phases. SmithsonianContributions to Anthropology 1. Washington.Marcos, Jorge G.1970 Puntas de proyectil bifaciales en la cultura Guangala. Cuadernos de Historia y Arquelogi'a 37 (XX).Publicacion de la Casa de Cultura Ecuatoriana, Nucleo de Guayas. Guayaquil.Menzel, Dorothy1968 New Data on the Huariempire in Middle Horizon epoch 2A. Nawpa Pacha 2:1-105. Berkeley.Murra, John V.1971 El trafico de mullu en la costa del Pacifico. Paper read at the Primer Simposio de CorrelacionesAntropol6gicas Andino-Mesoamericano, July 1971, Salinas, Ecuador. To be published in the proceedingsof the Symposium.Norton, Presley1971 Notes from a preliminary report on Loma Alta and the implications of inland Valdivia "A." Paperread at the Primer Simposio de Correlaciones Antropol6gicas Andino-Mesoamericano, July 1971, Salinas,Ecuador. To be published in the proceedings of the Symposium.Olsson, Axel A.1961 Mollusks of the tropical eastern Pacific: Panamic-Pacific pelecypoda. Paleontological Research

Institution. Ithaca, New York.Ottenberg, Simon1958 Ibo oracles and intergroup relations. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 14:295-315. Albuquer-que.Patterson, Thomas C.1966 Pattern and Process in the Early Intermediate Period pottery of the central coast of Peru. Universityof California Publications in Anthropology 3. Berkeley and Los Angeles.1971 Chavin: an interpretation of its spread and influence. In Dumbarton Oaks Conference on Chavi'n,edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, pp. 29-48. Dumbarton Research Library. Washington.Paulsen, Allison C.1968 A Middle Horizon tomb, Pinilla, Ica Valley, Peru.NawpaPacha 6:1-7. Berkeley.1971 The Guangala ceramic sequence for the Santa Elena Peninsula and its implications for prehistoriccontacts between Ecuador and Central America. Paper read at the Primer Simposio de CorrelacionesAntropologicas Andino-Mesoamericano, July, 1971, Salinas, Ecuador. To be published in the proceedingsof the Symposium.n.d. A chronology of Guangala and Libertad ceramics of the Santa Elena Peninsula in south coastalEcuador. Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University.


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Paulsen, Allison C., and Eugene J. McDougle1974 The Machalilla and Engoroy occupations of the Santa Elena Peninsula in south coastal Ecuador. Paperread at the 39th Annual Meeting, Society for American Archaeology, Washington. D.C.Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, Maria1970 Mercaderes del valle de Chincha en la epoca prehispinico: un documento y unos comentarios. RevistaEspanlolade A ntropologia 5: 13 5-17 7. Madrid.Rowe, John H.1946 Inca culture at the time of the Spanish conquest. In Handbook of South American Indians 2: theAndean civilizations, edited by Julian Steward, pp. 183-330. BAE Bulletin No. 143. Washington.1967 Form and meaning in Chavin art. In Peruvian Archaeology: Selected Readings, edited by John H.Rowe and Dorothy Menzel, pp. 72-104. Peek Publications, Palo Alto, California.Willey, Gordon R.1943 Excavations in the Chancay valley. InArchaeological Studies in Peru: 1941-1942. Columbia Studies inArchaeology and Ethnology 1. New York.Wilson, Godfrey, and Monica Wilson1968 The analyosis f social change. Paperback ed. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge.Wolf, Teodoro1892 Geografia ye geologia del Ecuador. Leipzig.

1974 paulsen - the thorny oyster and the voice of god: spondylus and strombus in andean prehistory

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