Spondylus Harvest

The importance of Spondylus to whoever could control the harvest sites along the Ecuadorian coast is reflected in the high status of objects with shell diving subject matter. For example, the over four-inch diameter gold Chimú earspools shown here demonstrate the very high prestige of the wearer; almost certainly a man, as women did not typically wear large jewelry in the ancient Americas. Post-conquest writings note that one of the top officials in the Chimú state was known as the Fonga Sigde and oversaw the entire spiny oyster trade with Ecuador—these earspools could easily have belonged to one of these high-level statesmen.

The scene depicts features four human divers (in blue) retrieving the precious material and two men back-to-back on a balsa wood raft (in brown) receiving the treasures. The two lowermost figures seem to be cutting the Spondylus shells (in red) with knives (in orange) to free them from their barnacle-like attachment to the deep rocks. The oblong shapes next to them (also in orange) probably represent baskets or nets—divers holding their breath cannot afford to dive for a single shell each time. The animal-headed serpentine forms (in green) represent ropes tied to the divers and/or their haul.

The four birds (in purple) are often included in boating scenes; certainly birds might try to steal oysters from the buckets on board. Their specific association with Spondylus harvesting is so strong that in some instances the birds themselves appear to stand in for the entire scene. Around the shoulder of this blackware urpu vessel birds appear in raised relief, standing out against a knobby background surface that imitates worn Spondylus shell spikes. These characteristic elements provide enough meaningful information to suggest a Spondylus harvest, without explicitly narrating the event itself.

 

On the gold earspools the three large rectangular elements (in yellow) likely represent rolled-up triangular sails, necessary to sail the boat into the deep waters where spiny oysters live. The headgear on the boatmen seems to mimic the rolled sails, emphasizing their identification with the marine harvesting process.

 

The small raised circles (in grey) around the earspools are found in earlier high-status Moche earrings, but here they also may refer to the multiple eyes lining Spondylus shells. Artists exaggerate these eyes, as seen in the vessel to the right, emphasizing the idea of extraordinary seeing—both that of the animal and of the shaman who ingests this important entheogen.