spondylus shell (Pacific thorny oyster, probably Spondylus princeps)
Mercado de Brujos (Witch's Market), Chiclayo, north coast Peru
width: approx. 13 cm (5 1/8 in.)
collected by Jack Daulton in Peru
The spondylus shell, from the waters off of the coast of northern Peru and Ecuador, has been important to Andean peoples since pre-Columbian times (indeed perhaps as early as the third millennium BCE), serving, among other functions, as an offering to the gods (especially to Pachamama, the earth goddess) and as a material of value incorporated into jewelry and other high-status personal adornment.
See generally: Benjamin P. Carter, "
Spondylus in South American Prehistory," in F. Ifantidis & M. Nikolaidou, eds., Spondylus
in Prehistory: New Data and Approaches. Contributions to the Archaeology of Shell Technologies (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 2011), Chpt. 6, pp. 63-89.
Spondylus
in Prehistory: New data and approaches. Contributions to the archaeology of shell
technologie
