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| Olga Fisch a collector per excellence! |
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All articles are written by some of our team co-workers and people related with our store, products and publications.
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GALLERY & MUSEUM personal collection
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Personal
ADORNMENT
The great quantity of necklaces, bracelets, brooches, and rings found, among many other objects used for personal adornment, shows that the pre-Columbian inhabitants of Ecuador were accustomed to decorating their bodies with distinctive elements taken from nature, including shells, precious stones, and semi-precious stones such as emeralds, turquoise, jade, serpentine, rock crystal, and lazulita. |
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The spondylus or mullu shell was one of the favorite materials of Ecuador’s ancient inhabitants for making personal ceremonial adornments, as it was considered to be a symbol of fertility. There are two types of spondylus on our coasts, princeps and calcifer, accounting for the variety of red and orange colors found in the ocean depths, particularly on the coasts of ManabĂ Province.Â
Spondylus princeps is a deep red color and has large spines on its surface. It lives on the Pacific Coast at depths of three to sixty meters, from the Gulf of Guayaquil in the south to the coasts of Esmeraldas Province in the north, as well as in the areas surrounding the islands of La Plata, Pelado and Salango in ManabĂ.Â
Spondylus calcifer is a purplish red color and lives in shallower waters than spondylus princeps, in an area that runs from the Ecuadorian coasts in the south to Gulf of California in the north.
Objects produced from spondylus appeared from very early times, not only among coastal cultures but also among mountain cultures, demonstrating an intense exchange of products between regions. This shell was distributed by sea along the entire Pacific Coast in Central and South America thanks to the knowledge of navigation and the commercial activity which our previous inhabitants developed. Â
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