By Andrew Stern
Chicago - The image of a fanged deity inscribed on a 4 000-year-old Peruvian gourd indicates an early Andean civilization practiced religion a millenium earlier than previously believed, scientists said on Monday.
Carbon dating of the fragment found at a looted Peruvian cemetery by a husband and wife team of anthropologists in July 2002 showed it was from around 2250 BC.
"This appears to be the oldest identifiable religious icon found in the Americas. It indicates that organized religion began in the Andes more than 1 000 years earlier than previously thought," said Jonathan Haas of The Field Museum in Chicago.
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'This appears to be the oldest identifiable religious icon found in the Americas' "We have this window back to the beginnings of civilization, to the role of religion and the emergence of a complex society, the role of religion in the development of social hierarchy, government, power, and leadership," he said.
The 7,5cm depiction of the "Staff God" shows a fierce feline face with fangs, clawed feet, a snake for one hand and a staff - a sign of leadership - held in the other. Unlike undecorated gourds found elsewhere, it was likely inscribed with a hot implement and placed in a grave due to its ceremonial value.
The gourd could also have served soup, though such details await a residue analysis of the fragment.
Versions of the Staff God appeared in Andean iconography in succeeding centuries throughout Latin America, with the deity later depicted in gold, clay, textiles and stone. The Staff God was later called the creator god, or Dira Cocha, by the Inca until contact with Europeans in the 15th century.
"This god on the gourd is telling us about the history of religion in South America," said anthropologist Winifred Creamer of Northern Illinois University.
'This god on the gourd is telling us about the history of religion in South America' The gourd fragment was discovered in a large burial ground in the Pativilca River valley of a region called Norte Chico, about 193km north of Lima.
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