page_title: Chimú culture
section_title: Production and trade
hierarchical_section_title: Chimú culture / Visual arts / Shell / Production and trade
caption_attribution_description: English: Pendant made of Spondylus shell and turquoise, Chimú, 900-1470 CE, Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington, DC Deutsch: Gehänge aus Spondylus-Muschelschale und Türkis, Chimú, 900-1470 n.Chr., Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington, DC
context_page_description: The Chimú culture was centered on Chimor with the capital city of Chan Chan, a large adobe city in the Moche Valley of present-day Trujillo, Peru. The culture arose about 900 AD, succeeding the Moche culture, and was later conquered by the Inca emperor Topa Inca Yupanqui around 1470, fifty years before the arrival of the Spanish in the region. Chimor was the largest kingdom in the Late Intermediate Period, encompassing 1,000 kilometres of coastline.
  The Chimú resided on a strip of desert on the northern coast of Peru. The rivers in the region carved a series of fertile valley plains, which were very flat and well-suited to irrigation. Agriculture and fishing were both very important to the Chimú economy.
  Worshipping the moon, the Chimú, unlike the Inca, considered it more powerful than the sun. Offerings played an important role in religious rites. A common object for offerings, as well as one used by artisans, was the shell of the Spondylus shellfish, which resides only in the warm coastal waters off present-day Ecuador.
context_section_description: Much of the existing evidence for shell-working in the Andes stems from archaeological findings and colonial texts. Spondylus is abundant in sites across Peru, discovered in burial sites and with the remains of shell workshops. The high level of uniformity in these shell objects, combined with the technical nature of shell-working, indicate that Spondylus production was domestic and carried out by independent craftsmen. Many collections of Spondylus artifacts contain objects from various stages of shell production: whole shells, fragments, worked pieces, and debris from shell reduction. Though researchers have uncovered worked shell debris and ample proof for the presence of shell workshops, they have only identified and discussed very few specific shell workshops. One workshop, which was thought to be maintained by the Chimú people, was identified at Túcume in the Lambayeque Region of Peru by archaeologist and researcher Daniel Sandweiss. Dating back to around 1390-1480 A.D., the workshop comprised various small rooms and contained evidence for the production of Spondylus beads. Shell debris from all stages of production, ranging from cut pieces to finished beads, along with the stone tools used to work the shell, were excavated from the site.
  While many archaeological sources point to the abundance of shell-working, as the remains of shell workshops and artifacts were uncovered widely in Peru, little evidence documents the movement of Spondylus from its source in Ecuador to workshops in Chan Chan. The archaeological record indicates that Chimor was an important center for the exchange of trade, and shell often traveled long distances from its geographic source to reach the empire of Chimor. The trade of Spondylus was integral to the expanding political power and economy of the Chimú. The shell was viewed as an exotic material, and the Chimor control of the exchange of the imported luxury good served as a means of political control, establishing and legitimizing the rule of the nobles. Unlike the Inca Empire, the Chimú did not attempt to expand its command of the Spondylus trade through imperial conquests of neighboring states, but rather, used its existing access to the trade as a religious and financial justification for power.
  Little information exists about the means by which Spondylus was acquired and exchanged along trade routes, and many scholars have proposed various models for Spondylus movement. The marine bivalve was likely traded either through independent merchants or state-administered long-distance trade, with a north-south movement of the items. One of the first accounts of exchange of Spondylus is a report written by Spanish colonist Francisco Xerez, who was a member of the expedition led by Francisco Pizarro, and describes a raft of luxury goods, such as textiles, emeralds, and gold and silver objects, which were to be traded for Spondylus shells.
  Researchers likewise disagree on the transportation methods of shells and whether they were exported via sea or land. Imagery in Andean pottery and reliefs depict llama caravans carrying shell, providing evidence that the transportation of shell was at least in part overland.
caption: Chimú pendant, 900-1470 AD, made of Spondylus shell and turquoise - Dumbarton Oaks
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