Ancient carved shell llama offering found in lake Titicaca

Date:
August 4, 2020
Source:
Penn State
Summary:
A llama carved from a spondylus shell and a cylindrical laminated
gold foil object were the contents of a carved stone box -- an
offering - - found at the bottom of Lake Titicaca. The offering,
found near an island in the lake, was not located where others
had found offerings in the past.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A llama carved from a spondylus shell and a cylindrical laminated gold
foil object were the contents of a carved stone box -- an offering --
found at the bottom of Lake Titicaca, according to researchers from Penn
State and the Universite' libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. The offering,
found near an island in the lake, was not located where others had found offerings in the past.


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"We knew they (Inca) did some form of ritual offerings and that they
did them in the lake," said Jose Capriles, assistant professor of
anthropology, Penn State. "The 16th and 17th century chronicles indicate
there were submerged offerings." Lake Titicaca is located in the Andes
between Bolivia and Peru. It is the largest lake in South America and
was important to many cultures, including the Tiwanaku and the Inca.

Amateur divers in 1977 found other offerings, or artifacts that could be
part of offering bundles near the Island of the Sun, but these were not
intact offerings. Professional divers between 1988 and 1992 investigated
the area of the Khoa reef and found pre-Inca and Inca artifacts including
stone boxes with miniature figures. Recent excavations show that the Khoa
reef was an important ceremonial site for the Inca and prior societies; however, this new group of artifacts was not found on the Khoa reef,
but on the K'akaya reef.

Capriles and Christophe Delaere, junior research fellow, Universite'
libre de Bruxelles, report their findings today (Aug. 4) in Antiquity.

"Since 2012, the Universite' libre de Bruxelles has implemented a research program with the goal of locating and inventorying the underwater heritage
of Lake Titicaca," said Delaere. "Our team has systematically surveyed
around the islands and reefs in the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca."
The K'akaya Archipelago is west of Challapata Bay in the eastern shore
of Lake Titicaca and is a series of a main island and three small
ones. K'akaya reef is the last islet of the small chain and is covered
in bird droppings.



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The divers retrieved the box intact although currents had eroded one
side. The box was tightly sealed, but not watertight. Resting in the box, beneath the silt that had filtered in, was the spondylus shell llama
and the rolled gold foil.

One indication that these boxes contain artifacts valuable enough for offerings, beside the gold foil, is the spondylus shell llama. The
closest location where the Inca could obtain this spiny oyster shell
was in warm coastal ocean waters off the coast of Ecuador.

Finding this box in a new location suggests to the researchers that
Lake Titicaca was a locus of ritual and ceremonial activity by the
Inca. Similar offerings are found in other parts of what was the Inca
Empire, some on land and some on water, but the researchers think that
the lake was important in the consolidation of the empire.

According to Capriles, as the Inca radiated out from Cuzco in Peru, Lake Titicaca became a focal point. Prior archaeological evidence indicates
that many of the islands, reefs and archipelagos contain ruins of temples
and other monumental architecture.

"Most of what we know outside of archaeology is from the Spanish,"
said Capriles. "Indications were that Lake Titicaca was a pilgrimage
center for the Inca, but also served as a focal point for alliances
with other groups." Spanish myths about the Inca dumping their gold
into Lake Titicaca are apparently untrue, but the lake holds much more information still to be uncovered, said the researchers.



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The artifacts reside with the Bolivian municipality of Escoma, which
has jurisdiction over the area in which they were found.

"One of the goals of our underwater archaeological survey was to identify
the existence of similar sites and to our surprise we found at least one,"
said Delaere. "It presents not only one of the rare intact discoveries
of an Inca underwater offering, but also that it was found at another
place in the lake, which has an important implication for understanding
the relationship between the expanding Inca empire, the local communities
who lived in the lake, and Lake Titicaca itself prior to European contact.

"The inland underwater world remains largely unexplored and offers
outstanding opportunities to understand prehistoric societies," said
Delaere. "The underwater heritage of Lake Titicaca still has many
surprises to reveal." Universite' libre de Bruxelles and Wiener-Anspach Foundation supported this work.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Penn_State. Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Christophe Delaere, Jose' M. Capriles. The context and meaning of an
intact Inca underwater offering from Lake Titicaca. Antiquity,
2020; 94 (376): 1030 DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2020.121 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200804085910.htm

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