Cupisnique was a pre-Columbian culture in what is presently Peru's Pacific Coast which thrived from 1500 to 1000 B.C. The culture had a distinctive style of adobe clay architecture but shared artistic styles and religious symbols with the Chavin culture which existed in the same area at a later date.1 The relationship between Chavin and Cupisnique is not well understood and the names are sometimes used interchangeably. Alana Cordy-Collins treats as Cupisnique a culture lasting from 1000 - 200 B.C. which are the dates associated with the Chavin culture.2 Izumi Shimada calls Cupisnique a possible ancestor of Mochica (Moche) culture with no mention of Chavin.3 Anna C. Roosevelt refers to "the coastal manifestation of the Chavin Hoziron...dominated by the Cupisnique style".4
A Cupisnique adobe temple was discovered in 2008 in the Lambayeque valley and is being called Collud. The temple includes imagery of the spider god, thought to be associated with rainfall, hunting and warfare. The spider god image combines a spider's neck and head, with the mouth of a large cat and the beak of a bird.
References
- ^ "God' Temple Found in Peru", José Orozco, National Geographic News, October 29, 2008
- ^ "Archaism or Tradition?: The Decapitation Theme in Cupisnique and Moche Iconography", Alana Cordy-Collins, Latin American Archaeology, 3(3), 1992
- ^ "Pampa Grande and the Mochica Culture", Izumi Shimada, University of Texas Press, 1994
- ^ "Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas: North America", Bruce G. Trigger, Wilcomb E. Washburn, Richard E. W. Adams, Frank Salomon, Murdo J. MacLeod, Stuart B. Schwartz, Cambridge University Press, 1996
See also
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