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Dumbarton Oaks Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology
The Thread of Life
Symbolism of Miniature Art from Ecuador
Johannes Wilbert

The late Emilio Estrada suggested the existence of a “cult of fertility” among the coastal inhabitants of prehistoric Ecuador. Evidence for such a cult throughout much of the area, he said, includes ceremonial pottery, spindle whorls, stamps, dishes, figurines, and copper axes decorated with the same or related designs, which emphasized, among other things, human couples and such animals as monkeys, jaguars, anteaters, birds, fishes, and certain reptiles. Frequently a death’s head was also depicted. All of these animal symbols may be observed on the spindle whorls. In this study, which is based on the analysis of approximately eight thousand spindle whorls, the author endeavors to call attention to and, where possible, interpret these representations and their relationship to the problem of “fertility,” or, to put it another way, the symbolic cycle of life and death—survival itself—of man and all life on earth.