The Thorny Oyster and the Voice of God: Spondylus and Strombus in Andean Prehistory

Author(s): Allison C. Paulsen

Source: American Antiquity, Vol. 39, No. 4, (Oct., 1974), pp. 597-607
Published by: Society for American Archaeology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/278907
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 THE THORNY OYSTER AND THE VOICE OF GOD:
SPONDYLUS AND STROMBUS IN ANDEAN PREHISTORY

ALLISON C. PAULSEN

An exchange network based on long-distanceexport of Spondylusand Strombus,two mollusksnative to

coastal Ecuador, united the sierra and coast of both Ecuador and Peru during a long period of Andean
prehistory.Thegradualexpansionof the export area is sketched,using evidencefrom threesuccessiveperiods:
(A) 2800 to 1100 B.C., (B) 1100 to 100 B.C.,and (C) 100 B.C. to A.D. 1532. Eachof theseperiodscorresponds
not only to an enlargementof the exchangesphere, but also to a strikingchangein the socioculturalstatusand
role of the two shellfish in highlandEcuador and in Peru. This series of qualitativechangesis related to
evolutionarysociopolitical developmentsin the centralAndes. Chdvinis seen as a pristinestate, linked to the
later Huariand Inca empires through their common use of Spondylusand Strombusshells as symbols of the
oraclesthat wereimportantintegrativemechanismsin the evolutiontowardlarge-scalesocieties.

PREHISTORICCONNECTIONSbetween various major regions of the Andes are difficult to

trace through ceramic relationshipsand similarities,since these resemblancesare not constant and
are at best ephemeral when viewed through time. A special version of this problem exists in
Ecuador:pottery made on the coast shows few consistent ties with ceramicsof the adjacentsierra.
There is, however, considerableevidence to indicate that from at least the second, and possibly
from as early as the third millenniumbefore Christ, until after the arrivalof the Spanishin A.D.
1532, people on the south coast of Ecuadorwere actively engagedin exporting the shells of the
thorny oyster, Spondylus, and of the conch, Strombus, first to highland Ecuador and later to
every part of the Peruviansierra and coast. There is now enough fragmentaryevidence of this
Andean exchange sphere to be able to trace its gradualexpansion from its early local beginnings
into a vast network of long-distanceexchange of regionalspecialitiesthat, after A.D. 1, brought
highlandobsidian and Peruviancopper to the Ecuadoriancoast in sufficient quantitiesto make it
appearto balancethe massivedistributionof native shell.
Although Spondylus and Strombus are both marine mollusks, they occupy slightly different
ecological zones: Strombuslives in intertidalwatersclose to the shore;Spondylus,however,clings
to reefs 20 to 60 feet below the surface of the ocean, and hence, under aboriginalconditions,
can be collected only by experiencednative divers(Fig. 1). Most significantly,both speciesinhabit
only tropical waters, and thus are not to be found alive on the Andeancoast south of the Gulf of
Guayaquil. Hence, we know that every one of the many specimens of these shells discovered
archaeologicallyin the Andeanhighlandsand the Peruviancoast must have been carriedthere from
its originalhome on the coast of Ecuador(Keen 1958:76, 336; Olsson 1961:152; PresleyNorton,
personalcommunication).
We can also be quite sure that as early as 100 B.C. the SantaElenaPeninsulaon the south coast
of Ecuador must have been a center of this export. All the Spondylus fragmentsdeposited in
peninsularmiddensafter that date have had their colored innermarginscut away, while practically
no immaturespecimenshave been found there at all. On the other hand, only immatureshells of
Spondylus, or the colored portions of mature ones, have been found in highlandEcuadoror in
Peru.
The evolution of this exchangespherecan be tracedby juxtaposinga numberof separatepieces
of informationfrom widely scatteredsourcesand correlatingthem into a broadpicturewhich, like
a pointillist painting,can be seen most clearlyfrom a distance,when its total effect transcendsany
of its component parts. This geographicallyheterogeneous evidence can be divided into three
successivetime periods,each correspondingto an expansionof the exchangearea.Each period also
marks a striking change in the sociocultural status and role of Spondylus and Strombus in the
Ecuadoriansierraand in Peru. These changes reflect major trends in Andeancommunicationand
political evolution. The three periodsare:

597
598 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 39, No. 4, 1974

czzin
'zIzZfEUUinEZaZ
o0 2 3 4 5 cm 10

(Courtesy of the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.)

Fig. la. The Painted Thorny Oyster Spondylus pictorum lower California. Negative 287015.

(Courtesy of the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.)

Fig. lb. Pink Conch Strombus gigas Bahamas. Negative 330000.
Paulsen] THE THORNY OYSTER 599

A. 2800 to 1100 B.C., when shell from coastal Ecuador was traded only as far as the
Ecuadoriansierra;
B. 1100 to 100 B.C., when the tradingarea expanded south, and the Ecuadorianshell became
entrenchedin the cultureof the centralAndes;and
C. 100 B.C. to A.D. 1532, when the total exchange areareachedfrom Quito to LakeTiticaca.
The data from each period will be interdigitatedby first describingthe shell assemblagein south
coastal Ecuadorand any items of reverseexchangefoundt the n cite coeval distribution
and the sociocultural context of Spondylus and Strombus in areas away from the Ecuadorian
coast. Since the shells often, but not always,occur as an associatedpairin these areas,the presence
of either should not be assumedwithout specific mention. Finally, I shall try to assimilateall this
diversematerialand attempt to come to some very generalconclusions about the two shells and
the implications of their changingroles in Andean prehistory.This concentrationupon items of
interregionalexchange may draw attention to economic factors that are not alwaysemphasizedin
Andeanstudies.
As yet we have little informationabout the specific trade routes, means of transportation,or
actual mechanismsof exchange involved in this long-distancemovement of local specialties.The
archaeologicaldistribution of Spondylus and Strombus suggeststhat, in general, the main trade
routes between coastal Ecuadorand Peru ran along the Andean spine, with secondarypathways
branching down the river valleys (Fig. 2). At least one ethnohistorian (Rostworowski 1970)
believes that Spondylus in bulk was shipped south to Peru by boat, but there is now no evidence
to indicate how early coastal shippingmay have begun. Aboriginalvesselswere entirely capableof
makinglong coastal voyages, but the date when such craft were first introduced is still uncertain
(Clinton R. Edwards,personalcommunication).They were probablynot in use as early as period
A, when contacts between the coasts of Ecuadorand Peru were almost nonexistent. It is also an
open question wther culturalfactors, and not the availabillityof seaworthy transport,dictated
any prehistoric choice between maritime a overlandnd exchange routes (Clinton R. Edwards,
personal communication). Finally, it seems only reasonableto suppose that Andean exchange
systems, like Andean society itself, underwent
fundamental changesduringthe evolution from the
small-scalelocal communitiesof period A to the enormouspan-Andeanempiresof periodC. Thus,
we should not assumethat all the featuresof this exchangepatternremainedunchangedduringthe
4000 years of its history.

PERIODA: 2800-1100 B.C.

Spondylus and Strombussuppliedrawmaterialfor both utilitarianobjects and for ornamentsin
the shell assemblage of the Valdivia complex in south coastal Ecuador (Meggers,Evans, and
Estrada 1965:37, PI. 21), now dated from 2800 to 1700 B.C. (Betsy D. Hill, personal
communication).It is interestingto note that at Loma Alta, the only inlandValdiviasite thus far
reported (which dates from Valdivia 1 or 2, [Betsy D. Hill, personalcommunication]), the only
shell objects found were two Spondylus nose rings (Norton 1971) and some beads (Presley
Norton, personal communication).Even a few kilometersfrom the sea, Spondylus artifacts were
exclusivelyornamental.
The shell assemblageof the Machalillaoccupation was apparentlynearly identical to that of
Valdivia(Meggers,Evans,and Estrada1965:113). Machalillais believedto date no later than 1100
B.C. (Paulsenand McDougle 1974). At this time, there is no evidence to suggest the presenceof
tradegoods on the SantaElenaPeninsula.
At CerroNarrio,near Caniarin the southernEcuadorianhighlands,Spondylus beads,pendants,
and figurines were found in levels assigned to Early CerroNarrio,but not in Late CerroNarrfo
occupations, leading to the conclusion that during the late occupation there was a decreasein
contacts with the seacoast (Collier and Murra 1943:81-82). Unfortunately, these excavations
antedated both radiocarbondating methods and the definition of comparablesequencesin related
areas, while two more recent appraisalsof the Cerro Narr'o material (Lanning 1963:215-219)
(Braun 1971) are somewhat at variancein drawinga chronologicalboundarybetween Early and
Late levels in terms of the coastal sequence. Nevertheless,the Cerro NarrfoSpondylus probably
600 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 39, No. 4, 1974

A
A

,ivio A
LA LIBERTADI
*A
CHANDU ^ CA AR
EL OR
TUMA AI ' \
A
*TALARA

uayurco
A

If
A

A A
A *PINILAA
A
\ ^ A
^!

0 100 200 300 400 K L

?---1--J---i I LT
IlIOmeTers
A

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

Paulsen] THE THORNY OYSTER 601

dates no later than the end of Machalilla,or about 1100 B.C., and some may be considerably
older, as Braunhas suggested.
No Spondylus or Strombusyet reported from any archaeologicalsite in Peru can be securely
dated before 1100 B.C., that is, before the end of the Machalillaoccupation of south coastal
Ecuador.However, perhapssuch specimens will turn up, if similaritiesbetweenMachalillapottery
and certain ceramics from Chavfn de Huantarand Kotosh reflect reciprocal direct or indirect
contacts between the Ecuadorian coast and the central Andean sierra (Paulsen and McDougle
1974).

PERIODB: 1100-100 B.C.

The cultural informationfor the south coast of Ecuadorduringthis periodis not yet complete
enough to allow a descriptionof its shell assemblage.The only Spondylus thus far reportedis a
highly stylized human figurine found in a late Engoroy burialat La Libertad(Bushnell 1951:94).
There is no evidence to suppose that anything of period B on the Peninsularepresentsactual
trade from other areas, although one Engoroy site has yielded a sherdin the Cucupampa,or final
Huancarcuchustyle from Cuenca (Lanning 1968:42). Obsidianhas not been found in Engoroy
contexts (Karen Stothert, personalcommunication),althoughit has been reportedassociatedwith
Chorreraceramics,giving rise to a theory that both obsidianchippingand the materialitself were
imported from MesoamericaduringChorreratimes. The lack of obsidianin Engoroysites does not
support this theory. Moreover, the supposedly Mesoamericanobsidian has been called "as
transparentas window glass"(Meggers1966:56), inadvertentlyhelping to confirma widely held
contraryopinion that all the obsidianfound archaeologicallyin south coastal Ecuadorwas brought
there from the north Ecuadorianhighlands(Wolf 1892:358; Bushnell1951:68).
Although Spondylus is absent from Late CerroNarrfo,the export of shell from the Ecuadorian
coast continued and the exchange area apparentlyexpanded at this time. Both Spondylus and
Strombus, in fact, underwenta major apotheosis and became attachedto a centraldivinityat the
ceremonial center of Chavfn de Huantar in the central Andes. Here the Tello Obelisk, a
free-standingstela dating from Chavfn C, or about 800 B.C., is covered with a complicated
profusion of interrelatedmotifs in low relief that apparentlyembody a shorthandencyclopediaof
Chavfncosmology. One of these motifs (Rowe 1967:Fig. 7, A-21) is recognizablya Strombus.
Another(Rowe 1967:Fig. 7, A-2)has been identified as a Spondylus(Lathrap1973:96). Each shell
is embellished with mythical attributes and is thus to be consideredan intrinsic part of Chavfn
iconography. It is especially surprisingto find these two mollusks from the coast of Ecuadorin
this place and on this sculpture,not only becauseof their remote provenience,but also becauseall
the other floral and faunal emblems on the obeliskhave been describedas havingemanatedsolely
from the Amazon Basin(Lathrap1970:77).
The so-called "Smiling God," a later version of the deity representedon the Tello Obelisk
(Rowe 1967:84), is carvedin relief on a slab that is also from Chavfnde Huantar,but dates from
ChavfnD, perhapsa couple of centurieslater (John H. Rowe, personalcommunication).This god
is portrayedwith only two hagiographicattributes, a Strombusin his righthand and a Spondylus
in his left (Rowe 1967:84, Fig. 21).
Artifacts made of or representingthe two Ecuadorianmolluskshave been found in many Early
Horizon sites throughout the central Andes. For example, at Huayurco, a site describedas an
important manufacturingand tradingcenter west of the bend of the Marafion,burialsassignedto
the Early Horizon contained a necklace embellishedwith a half a dozen flat Spondyluspendants,
each carved in the shape of a stylized fish. Strombus trumpets also turned up in these burials
(Lathrap 1970:108, PI. 21). On the north coast, the "PickmanStrombus,"engravedin the Chavin
style, comes from Chiclayo (Larco Hoyle 1941:88, Fig. 174); at Malpasoon the central coast, a
cache of cut Spondylus shells dated between 950 and 650 B.C. was found on the top of a small
pyramid (Thomas C. Patterson, personalcommunication).Elsewherein Early Horizon Peru, the
body of a "Cupisnique"stirrupspout pot representsa whole Spondylus (LarcoHoyle 1941, Fig.
127), while another(Museumof the AmericanIndian,New York #23/7099) has a body consisting
of a pairedSpondylusand Strombus.
602 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 39, No. 4, 1974

All this indicates that duringthe Early Horizon,Spondylusand Strombuswere elite insigniain
ceremonialcenters and in burialsin the sierraand coast of the centralAndes.

PERIOD C: 100 B.C.-A.D. 1532

The Guangalaoccupation of the Santa Elena Peninsula(100 B.C.-A.D.800) and its successor,
Libertad (A.D. 1000-1400) are now known in sufficient detail to supply evidence about certain
kinds of long-distanceexchange to the peninsuladuringthis period. Pendantsand beads were the
only artifacts made of Spondylus in a large and varied Guangalashell assemblagethat included
celts, weights,spoons, and nose rings.Strombuswas used only for tools (Bushnell 1951:60-63).
Spondylus figurines similar to the one in Bushnell'slate Engoroy burialin La Libertad,and
atlatl hooks and pendants of the same materialhave been found in a site assignedto the undated
Jambeli complex, located on the coast of El Oro provincein Ecuador(Estrada,Meggersand Evans
1964, Fig. 7a, b; Fig. 8a, b; Fig. 9a, b), whose associated intrusives date from no later than
Guangala1, or about A.D. 100 (Paulsenn.d.).
Interestingly,no shell objects have turned up at the Pechicheor Garbanzalsites in the Tumbes
area 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 Tejar sites
(Meggers1966:83), whose Guangalaintrusivesmay be slightly later than those in Jambeli. This
suggests that the exchange route from the Peninsula to the sierra ran east in a fairly narrow
corridor.
In exchange for the massive amount of native shell exported from the Ecuadoriancoast, the
Peninsula now began to receive obsidian and copper. This reciprocal exchange began after
Guangala1, or about A.D. 200 (Paulsenn.d.). Obsidianwas not found in a Guangala1 single-phase
site at San Pablo (Karen Stothert, personal communication), nor at a Guangala1 workshop at
Pichilingo,near Chanduy(Marcos1970). On the other hand, obsidianscrapersturn up regularlyin
contexts assigned to Guangala2 through 8 (Bushnell 1951:68), while obsidian cores have been
found at Real (Bushnell 1951:68) and at a one-phaseGuangala8 site west of La Libertad.
Copper appears on the Peninsulafor the first time duringthe Guangalaoccupation, probably
also after Guangala1, since it has not been found in any level before Guangala2. A copper needle
at Tigre and a copper punch at Palmarhave Guangala3 stratigraphicassociations(Paulsenn.d.).
Pins, nose rings, celts, and tweezers, among other Guangalaobjects, are as yet without specific
phaseassociations.
Copperis not native to the Ecuadoriancoast. It has been pointed out that all Guangalacopper
artifactsmay have been brought from the highlands(Bushnell 1951:72-74), while spectrographic
analysis suggests that copper objects from three areas in coastal Ecuador-Manabl,the Guayas
Basin, and the Peninsula-all probably shared a common source which has not been identified
(Bushnell 1951:71). Since copper has been found at Garbanzal(Izumi and Terada1966:69), one
may infer that copper was more widely distributed than shell in sites around the Gulf of
Guayaquil.
Certain features of Guangalapottery of Phases 1 through 5 appear to indicate some direct
connection with Central America (Paulsen 1971). This simultaneity between Central American
similarities and the first appearanceof trade goods on the Peninsula may or may not be a
coincidence.
Copperis found earliest on the south coast of Peru at the end of the Early Horizon(Lanning
1967:111).
Spondylus and copper shareburialand other associationsin Peruduringthe EarlyIntermediate
period coeval with Guangala.For example, a burial at Cerrode Trinidadin Chancay,datingfrom
Lima 2 to 4 (Patterson 1966:122) and thus roughly contemporary with Guangala 2 to 5,
contained one whole mature Spondylus shell, smoothed and ground, a necklace of 48 Spondylus
beads, and about 200 more formerly sewed to a headdress,some Spondylus necklace spreaders,
and a copper-and-gold face mask (Willey 1943:165-166). In fact, all through the Early
Intermediateperiod Spondylus was popular along the Peruviancoast in the form of ornaments
made from whole immaturespecimens or from the red outside layer of the matureshell (Lanning
1968:42).
Paulsen] THE THORNY OYSTER 603

In contrast to the Early Horizon, neither Spondylus nor Strombus are representedin pottery
duringthe EarlyIntermediateperiod.
In Middle Horizon 2, contemporarywith Guangala6, 7, and 8 (Paulsenn.d.), Spondylus and
Strombus continued to be associated together and with copper. In Pinilla, near Ica, a Middle
Horizon 2 (Paulsen 1968) burialwas accompaniedby both workedand unworkedSpondylus,and
by gold and copper ornaments.A Middle Horizon 2 cache at Pikillaqtain the lower Cuzco valley
consisted of "2 valvesof a Spondylusshell, a Strombusshell, and a copper bar"(Menzel 1968:51).
Specialnote should be made of a woven hangingfrom Pachacamac,the centralcoast ceremonial
center where an important oracle was located duringthe Middle and Late Horizons. One side of
this hanging was embellished with a series of whole immatureSpondylus shells, and the reverse
with copper ornaments. It was apparentlypart of the ritual paraphernaliasurroundinga Middle
Horizonwooden figure(Kosok 1965:39) that embodied the physicalpresenceof the oracle.
During the Libertad occupation of the Santa Elena Peninsula, contemporarywith the Late
Intermediate period in Peru, Spondylus beads continued to be associated with copper at La
Libertad(Bushnell 1951:99, 112), but importationof both copper and obsidianprobablytapered
off at this time, for both are reportedly rare (Bushnell 1951:115) and none have been found in
Libertad stratigraphictests (Paulsen n.d.). This narrowingof extrapeninsularconnections is also
reflected in the stylistic affinities of the Libertadpottery style, which has links only as far distant
as Mantaand the GuayasBasin.
One Libertad sherd has been found in a Sechura site near Talaraiin northwest Peru (James
Richardson,personalcommunication).This sherd is, at present, the only archaeologicalevidence
of tradeby sea between Ecuadorand Peru.
A variety of evidence from Inca and early Spanish times, postdating Libertad,helps flesh out
the bare bones of this artifactualcensus. The Incas used Spondylus shells, either whole, carved,
ground-up,or cut in pieces, as offerings at springs to bring abundantrainfallto newly planted
crops (Rowe 1946:249). An early Quechuatext describesthe wrath of a divinity when the Inca
did not bringhim a servingof Spondylus,the favoritefood of the gods (Murra,1971).
Finally, a single-note trumpet made of a large Strombus shell was used not only as a war
trumpet by the Incas, but is still blown rituallyby some Quechuasat certainpoints in the Roman
Catholicmass (Rowe 1946:290).

CONCLUSIONS
By arrangingthis fragmentaryevidence in a chronological mosaic more than three thousand
years long, we can trace the gradualexpansion of the area of export of Spondylusand Strombus
from its beginnings,possibly in Valdfviatimes, until its widest extent early in the Christianera.
The Ecuadorianshell alreadycited from Peruviansites representsonly a smallsampleof those
finds mentioned in the literature.Whilethe volume of export from Ecuadorcannot be estimated
with any precision,we recognizethat it must have been of massiveproportions,since the shells not
only accompanied the wide expansion of Chavfn,but had penetratedevery part of the Peruvian
sierraand coast by the beginningof the EarlyIntermediateperiod.
At their source on the coast of Ecuador,the two kinds of shell were used for tools as well as for
ornaments, and they were never a dyadic pair on the coast as they were away from their native
habitat. Away from the coast or in Peru, however, Spondylus is almost invariablyprofoundly
modified and found in the form of small ornamentsor jewelry or in context suggestingelite or
ritual associations.Strombus was not carved or otherwise modified, but it was sometimesincised
with ritual themes. Yet the two mollusks were constantly paired at Peruviansites, not only as
actual specimens of shell, but also in symbolic representationsin sculpturedand ceramic forms.
These features of manufacture,usage, and associationsuggest that, althoughthe two species were
ritually linked, the importanceof Spondylus lay immanent in the materialitself, while Strombus'
role was functionaland perhapssubordinate.
Until the middle of the second millenniumB.C., Spondylus was traded only as far as Cafiar,
where figurinesjoined the previousrepertoireof shell artifacts.At this early period, as throughout
subsequentAndeanprehistory,both Spondylusand Strombusare found as exchangegoods only at
trade centers situated on major avenuesof communication,reflectingthe attractionof such goods
604 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 39, No. 4, 1974

to socially heterogeneous redistributivecenters that, almost by definition, contain elite social

groups.
Although there is no evidence of trade flowing reciprocallyback to the Ecuadoriancoast at this
time, we need not assumethat perishablegoods were not exchanged.If this interregionalexchange
followed patterns noted elsewhere, it could well have taken place in a ritual setting such as has
been noted in New Guinea, where such reified surpluschangeshands as a manifestexpressionof a
latent adaptive function acting to integrate diverse ecological areas and thereby widen the
socioculturalbase (Lees 1967).
The absence of Spondylus in late levels at Cerro Narrfo may signify that this elite
exchange-perhaps even this elite group-had shifted to other areasfarther to the south in Peru,
where only a short time later Spondylus and Strombusnext appearas full-fledgedmembersof an
elite ceremonial complex in the major center of Chavin de Huantarin the central Andes. This
marks the first appearanceof the Spondylus-Strombusdyad which continued until at least the
eighth century A.D.
This major shift southwardwent hand in hand with strikingchangesin the culturaltreatment
and context of both mollusks in Peru,as well as with a significantadvancein their status: as ritual
emblems, their importance now transcended the simple facts of their foreign origin and
consequentrarity,althoughsuch considerationsundoubtedlyunderlaymuch of their originalvalue
as elite insignia.
These geographicaland socioculturalcontrastsbetween period A and period B also point up the
vast differences in scale between Chavin and all the previous Andean cultures, using the word
"scale" as defined by Godfrey and Monica Wilson: "the number of people in relation and the
intensity of those relations. .. measuredby the proportion of economic cooperationin the form
of... exchange through trade and reciprocal goods," and of the size and intensity of
communicationsin both space and time (Wilsonand Wilson1968:25ff). The dimensionof relative
scale can help us put Chav'nin its proper perspective,sandwichedchronologicallybetween early
small-scaleAndean societies and the late Huariand Inca highly centralizedstates, toward which
Chavinwas the penultimatestep.
If phaseC Chavfnmakesexplicit emblematicreferencesto the Pacificcoast of Ecuadoras well as
to the Amazonian forest on the other side of the Andean sierra, one may well infer that this
ideological integrationof diversemarginalareasexpresses the fact that culturalelements from at
least two widely separatedregions had been drawn into an evolutionaryvortex in the central
Andes, and that from this vortex had emerged the Chavfnart style as the highly visible apex of a
vast hidden substructureof somethingvery close to what Friedhas called a "pristinestate" (Fried
1967:231-235). In this process, Spondylus and Strombus from the Pacific coast and a whole
congeries of fauna and flora from the tropical forest were temporarilyconsolidated into an axial
Chavfnconfigurationthat served as a kind of universaljoint for a numberof areasby transmitting
many of their elements differentially, or centrifugally, out to parts of the greaterAndes some
distance from their originalsources.After ChavfnC, these ties weakened,Spondylusand Strombus
became partly disassociated,many of the other components shown in the ritualconfigurationon
the Tello Obelisk vanished or became transformed, and the phase C ritual assemblage was
completely disassembled.
Pattersonhas suggestedthat the central figure at Chavfnde Huantarmay have been an oracle,
first representedby the Great Image of PhaseAB which was thus the first in a line of such oracles
that persistedas a continuousstrandin the fabricof Andeanreligionuntil historic times (Patterson
1971:46). Now an oracle is more than a cosmic fortuneteller:such a figure also fulfills multiple
functions on many other socioculturallevels. For example, in Ibo groupsin west Africa,in an area
where "no political superstructure,such as a federation, a confederacy, or a state existed"
(Ottenberg 1958:296), oracles were located in strategic geographicalpositions with regardto
contacts with north, south, east, and west, and the oracle pattern "included religious
specialists,.. . diviners, medical men and priests, who travelled a considerabledistance outside
their own independent units, sometimes making regulartours" (Ottenberg 1958:298). The Ibo
oracles were also deeply involved in trading systems and facilitating "the distribution of trade
Paulsen] THE THORNY OYSTER 605

goods, including food ... and (also) served to redistribute the population from areas of high
population to areas of lower density" (Ottenberg 1958:311). Greek oracles, too, were consulted
when new colonies were to be established.
Oracles have appeared in many complex societies from Mesopotamiato Polynesia, but not
many of the circumstancesof their originhave been retrievedfrom the preliteratepast. All seem to
have developed at a stage in sociocultural evolution when religion was being institutionalized
(Gibson 1961:35). We might postulate that a patternof oracleswould be likely to materializepari
passu with increasedpopulation density, growth of social stratification,and the appearanceof a
true state.
Chavfnexhibits all these evolutionarysymptoms. And the continuity proposedfrom the Great
Image of Phase AB at Chavin de Huantarthrough the Middle Horizon to the Inca oracles at
Pachacamacis further strengthenedby a predictably consistent associationbetween Spondylus,
Strombus, and the oracle, reflecting a commensuratelyclose link between Andean economic
history and Andeancosmology. If Spondyluswas the visualsymbol of this multiplex pattern,then
Strombusmust have providedboth the voice of the oracleand the sound of the deity.
One nearly unanswerablequestion remains to be asked. Why were Spondylus and Strombus
singled out to express so many layers of socioculturalsignificance?Neither mollusk could have
been an item of diet away from the seacoast. The reference to Spondylus as food of the gods is
peculiarlyappropriate:by the time one reachedthe highlands,only a supernaturaldigestioncould
have eaten it and survived.
Somewhat lamely one can only say that a combination of exotic provenience and natural
propertiesmust have helped determinethe special status of these tropical shellfish in the central
Andes. Strombus is a naturaltrumpet, while the forbiddingprotrusionsof the thorny oyster not
only set it apart from other marine mollusks, but are somehow suited to the powerful
grotesqueriesof the Chavfnstyle.
Both animalsare also membersof a pool of biota seemingly invested with mythic powers the
world around. For example, one of the two objects traded in the Trobriandkula ring was a
necklace called soulava, made from beads of Spondylus collected and fabricated during ceremonies
including the ritual blowing of a Strombus trumpet (Malinowski 1961 :367-375). Another Chavin
supernatural, the eagle, is also found among the ceremonial monuments in Washington, D.C., at
the recent end of a genealogy traceable to Bronze Age Greece, when it was a symbol of both the
power and an oracle of Zeus. We all know-or hope we know-that these global coincidencesare
no more than that.
This paper is a slightly altered version of one presented May 5, 1972 at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Society
for 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, and
access to unpublished data which have been incorporated in this paper. I am solely responsible for any omissions
or misinterpretation.

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