ROTARYTOOLS

•In

AncientPeru

By TERENCE GRIEDER

T ools are generally thought of as havingpractical uses only, but in PrecolumbianAmerica mechanical de vices were en-

dowed with symbolic meaning and had ritual aswell as practical application. Moreover, the arti-facts produced with these ritual tools too k on asimilar symbolic importance. Rotary tools andtheir products are a case in point.

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Wheel-made ceramicpedestal cup, from thePashash burial. Thepainting is in blackand red on white.Height, 8 centimeters;diameter of rim, 13centimeters .

In ancient America the simplest rotary tools,the dril! and the spindle, were known from avery early time. The more sophisticated latheand the specialized form of the lathe cal!ed apotter's wheel have not been found, and for thisreason scholars assumed that the two deviceswere unknown to the Precolumbian inhabitantsof the New World. Recently, however, a groupof ceramic and stone funerary vessels discov-ered in the ruins of Pashash in highland Peruindicates that lathes and potter's wheels wereknown but were limited in their use to the man-ufacture ofritual vessels. Apparently they werenever applied to the production of utilitarianobjects.

At Pashash even the drill was given aspecialized ritual use. In addition to solid dril!bits employed for cutting parts of ritual vessels,hollow drill bits of unusually large sizes wereused to make perfect cireles on a number ofstone sculptures. Moreover, the fascinationwith rotary tools led Pashash painters andsculptors lO the use of a whirling motif, a variantof the swastika, which is unusual in Precolum-bian art in its expression of dynamic movement.It seems elear that for the ancient people ofPashash advanced rotary techniques hadprimarily metaphoric rather than economicvalue.

Lathe-made black stone pedestalcup, from the Pashash burial.Height, 7.2 centimeters; diameterof rim, 10.4 centimeters.

Pashash, a ruined town high on the steepwestern slope of the Andes, adjoins and partlyunderlies the modern town of Cabana, the capi-tal of che Pro~ince of Pallasca in the Depart-ment of Ancash in north-central Peru. Theruins have long been known for their spectacu-lar stone walls, sorne of whicll are sixteen metersin height. Since 1969 with the permission of theNational Institute of Culture of Peru and thesupport of the University of Texas at Austin, 1have been directing excavations at this site.

Ten radiocarbon tests indicate that the townwas inhabited before A.D. 310 and was aban-doned in the seventh century. Excavations onthe top of a precipitous hill called La Capillarevealed the burial of a woman of the rulingdass, accompanied by spindle whorls, jewelryand an abundance of ceramic and stone vessels.Most of the objects discussed in this artide weregifts or ritual offerings deposited with the bodyof the dead woman. Two radiocarbon analysesdate the interment to the second half of the fifthcentury.

The ceramic and stone cu ps are of particularinterest beca use they show the marks of therotary tools used in their manufacture. Cupswith low pedestal bases were a common form inboth utiiitarian and ceremonial wares duringthis period at Pashash. Like ail olher Prccolum-

Stone sculpture representing an owl with a tenon forinsertion in a wall. The broken area presumably had abeak. The eyes were made by hollow drill bits. Collectionof the Centro Artesanal, Cabana. Height, 15 centimeters;width, 24 centimeters.

Fragment of a stone relief representing afeline monster. The eye was cut with hollowbits measuring 12, 10, and 7 centimeters indiameter. Collection af the church inCabana. Preserved height, 41 centimeters.Preserved width, 38 centimeters.

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Bottom of the foot of a stone pedestal cupo Off-center placement of the depression indica tes theuse of a drill to hollow the foot. The vessel "vasdampened for the photographs. Diameter offoot, 5 centimeters.

bian pottery, such cups were ordinarily hand-made, but in the La Capil!a burial there arefifteen stone cups which were dearly producedby rotary tools and seventy-one pottery cupsmade partially or completely with such devices.

The lathe was the major tool used for theproduction of the stone vessels. The absolutecircularity and evenness of these cups couldonly have been produced with the help of sornerotating device, and the hardness of the mate-rial would have necessitated the use of a shaft-centered mechanism, for the stone was simplytoo hard to be cut effectively on a loose turnta-ble. Furthermore, the regularity ofthe horizon-tal tool marks shows that the work and not thetool was rotated, an indication of the use of alathe. The stone would have been attached bythe base ofthe vessel to the shaft, and the hollowof the foot would have had to be drilled outafterwards. The use of both the dril! and thelathe on a single piece was not unusual. A largeblue stone spindle whorl from the burial offer-ing has a drilled hole through its center and acurving exterior wall which could only ha vebeen made by a tool with a variable radius, suchas a lathe.

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Fragments of unfired clay cups from the burialoffering. These cups were so 50ft they could only havebeen used as offerings to the dead. At the top can beseen the circular depression cut into the base of thebowl for setting the foot, fallen out to lower left. Thereliefs of jaguars and an anthropomorphic god wouldhave prevented the wheel-throwing of the bowl, unlessthe reliefs were molded separately and attached. Thehuman figure, crown to break, is 4.3 centimeters high.

Drills with specialized bits were applied toparticular tasks. The hol!owing of the feet ofthe stone cups was accomplished with a dril!which left a curving wall and a small central pit,presumably where the shaft rested. The slightlyeccentric placement of the depression in thefeet of two stone cu ps likewise indicates the useof a drill, a tool which itself rotated in contrast toa lathe that spun the work.

A drill bit which produced a flat circular de-pression around the central pit was used on thebottom of the ceramic cups to cut a socket intowhich the pedestal foot was set. That the cupand its foot were made separately and thenjoined is evident in the tendency of the feet tobreak away from the cups. Among the cupsmade of day there are four which were placedin the burial offering without having beenfired. As the burial settled one of these vesselslost its foot, revealing a perfectly circular de-pression about three mil!imeters in depth cutinta the base of the cup. A small hole showswhere the shaft of the drill was centered.

Blue stone with a drilled hole and a lathe-cut exterior.Diameter of vase 5.9 cm.; diameter of top 4.1 cm.;diameter of hole, 1.8 cm.; height, 2.9 centimeters.

Interior of the foot of a ceramic pedestal cupo The veryfine lines may have been produced as the vessel spunagainst a smoothing tool or cloth. Diameter of foot,5.5 centimeters.

The most important evidence for the use ofrotary tools comes from the ceramic cups foundin the burial at Pashash, for it can be demon-strated that they were produced on the potter'swheel, a de vice so far undiscovered in Pre-

_ coL..;....:n-bi-an America. ~n-HÜ-\'velL a potter at

White slip used in decoration partially obscures the turninglines visible at the upper edge ofthe foot on this vessd fromthe Pashash burial. Diameter of foot, 5,3 centimeters,

Interior of the foot of a cup made in 1974 bySteven Howell on an electric potter's wheelturning at moderate speed, The texture of theclay is not as fine as that of the Pashashpottery, but similar turning lines are apparent.Diameter ol' foot, 7,2 centimeters,

the University of Texas, conducted experi-ments which indicate that the striations appear-ing inside the pedestal feet of the ceramic ves-seis could have been made by a eloth used as asmoothing tool when the soft elay vessels werespun at a moderate speed.

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Side view of the foot of a ceramic cup showing the tendency of the foot to crack off. Both the footand the bowl show spin marks on the exterior surfaces. The background color of the painted areaalso appears to have been applied while the cup was spinning, Diameter of foot, 6.4 centimeters,

Simple rotating platforms without centershafts were used to make pottery in many partsof ancient America. The k'abal, a turntable 1'0-

tated with the feet, was used in the Maya areaand in Oaxaca a device called a molde, consistingof twin shallow bowls set base to base and spunslowly by hand, was employed. In the Andesnearer to Pashash, craftsmen used the palala, aflat pottery plate, as a turntable support forpottery making. The handmade utilitaria n ves-seIs found at Pashash may well have been madeon such a support which rotated but lacked acenter shaft. The tool marks found on thefunerary cups are entirely absent from theutilitarian wares.

Although the funerary pottery shares vesselforms with utilitarian wares, it is immediatelydistinguishable from household ceramics by itsstructural precision, a feature which it has incommon with the stone vessels. This regularitycould not have been achieved without a shaft-centered de vice in rapid rotation, a lathe for thestone vessels, a potter's wheel for the day ones.Moreover, the brushmarks dearly indicate thateven the slipping and painting ofthe decorativecolor bands on the pottery cups in the burialwere done as the vessels spun. These bandscontrast ta the more irregular painting found

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on modeled vessels and other forms not madeon rotary too!s,

The use of rotary tools at Pashash is confinedto a period which began in the fifth century andended before the site was abandoned in theseventh. From the terminal period in the life ofthe town come hand-carved stone artifacts,such as an irregular green stone cup with a flatbase and a face carved in relief on one side. Thispiece is one of many which show a reversion tomanual techniques and a rejection of rotarytools. Since the more advanced rotary deviceswere used only on ceremonial objects, their re-jection may be understood as the rejection of asystem of symbols rather than a casting off of atechnology, The rituals which required the useof rotary tools seem ta have been the propertyof an elite group and never to ha ve reached thesociety as a whole; the folk techniques whichsurvive to this day indude neither the potter'swheel nor the lathe.

The difference between utilitarian andceremonial artifacts represents the differencebetween survival-oriented activities and thosedirected toward philosophical or artistic expres-

Stone relief with a whirling designoSeven reliefs from Pashash bear thismotif, all with the arms curving to theleft. AH of the examples measureabout 40 centimeters square and arenow in the Church at Cabana,

J ar decorated with a painted whirling designoThe circles at the center suggest the presence ofa shaft. Height, 15 centimeters.

sion. The whirling motif on ceremonial potteryand relief sculpture was a common decorativemotif at Pashash during the period when rotarytools were used. The cirde and dot appearing inpainted examples of the design suggest that themotif was inspired by a rotary device with acentral shaft. The freely rotating pala la wouldnot have been as likely to have suggested a firmcentral point to the artist. The motif was not theexdusive property ofPashash, however, for it isalso found as an ornament on the costumes ofsorne Moche chiefs or warriors living on thenorth coast of Peru within sorne hundred milesof Pashash. This design is unusual in itsdynamism; static figures emphasizing sym-metry are more typical of Precolumbian art.Although one can only surmise the exact sig-nificance which this motif originally conveyed,doubtless it represented the power of rotation.That it also represented the power of rotationaltools is unlikely, beca use such devices were used,like the design, for purely symbolic reasons. AtPashash the design appears for the first time incompany with the evidence of rotary tools. Theritual uses of the tools and the appearance ofme whirling motif in art emphasize the symbolicimportance of the concept of rotation.

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Whirling designs have a directional motiondefined by their arms; the Nazi swastika, forexample, is considered to spin dockwise. Itstood for forward motion or progress and elic-ited identification from the observer. Direc-.tionality may have universal significance basedon the dominance of right-handedness. If thatis the case, the meaning of the Pashash designsmay be understood as the opposite of the Naziswastika, since all of the painted and carveddesigns spin counterdockwise. Even the pot-ter's wheels used at Pashash spun to the left, as isevident in the marks the tools left in the day.The widespread Precolumbian concept ofdynamic supernatural guardians of nature whowere the antagonists of man may have beensymbolized by the Pashash tools and designs,since a left-hand spin implies opposition.

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Slate ring of unknownuse. The exteriordiameter measures3.5 centimeters.

Stone "mortar," possibly used as asupport for a rotary tool. Height, 12cm.; diameter 10,2 cm.

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Fragment of a stone ring, perhaps a clubhead or aflywheel of a rotary tool. Diameter 13.2centimeters; diameter of hole 4.4 centimeters,

Sorne difficult questions still remain to beanswered. Archaeology has produced the fruitsof Pashash technology but none of its imple-ments. No objects have been found which canbe certainly identified as parts oflathes, drills orpotter's wheels. The workshop has not beenuncovered, but even if it were it is unlikely thatany complete tools would be found since theshafts undoubtedly were made of wood, a mate-rial which does not survive for long in thePashash area. Even the hollow bits of the drillswere probably made of reed or bamboo andused with a sand abrasive. Because the tbols hada ritual use, it is conceivable that they, like theirproducts, might ha ve been given as burial offer-ings, as in fact spindle whorls were.

Among the various objects from Pashashmade of stone, bone, metal and ceramic, thereare a number, particularly of stone, whose orig-inal use is uncertain. Several have drill holesand might have been parts of rotary devices,even though they are not usually identified inthat way. The largest of these has been called amortar, but the depression is so regular that itmay have been made by a rotating shaft ratherthan by pounding. Another piece, which hasbeen identified as a dubhead on the basis of

various depictions of warriors, could haveserved as a fiywheel. Finally there is a group ofsmall pieces of shale, roughly circular in shape,which are pierced by holes obviously producedby an abrasive rotating bit. The famous Peru-vian archaeologist julio Tello tentatively iden-tified similar objects at Chav'm de Huántar as100m weights, but they might have served assupports for the butts of drill shafts. Simplerotary tools require only a shaft supported attwo points and a source of power. A hand-spundrill could have been both powered and sup-ported by the craftsman's two hands. In the caseof a lathe or potter's wheel the work cannotsupport the shaft, so two other points of sup-port, as free of friction as possible, are required.

Lacking archaeological evidence, the modernexperimenter can only try to imagine the kindof tools the ancient people used to produce thesurviving artifacts. In reconstructing such tools,the cultural background of the ancientcraftsmen is one of the most important consid-erations. Despite the fact that there is no defi-nite evidence of cord-driven shaft tools in Pre-columbian America, the astonishing variety ofuses for fiber and textile products in the An-dean region suggests that the rotary tools usedat Pashash may have been driven by hand-operated cords. Besides dothing, the Andeanpeople made bridges, doors, roofs and sornearchitectural ornaments, computers (quipu),weapons for hunting and fighting (the sling andto a lesser extent the bow), mortuary sculpture,basketry and boats of cordage or textile pro-ducts.

Experiments show that pulling on a continu-ous cord wrapped around a shaft gives a rapideven rotation, especially if the shaft has a fly-wheel. This method would have been a naturaldevelopment from the technique used forspinning thread, and it is consistent with theAndean preference for the sling, which spins ina single direction, over the bow. There is noevidence of the reversal of motion in the toolmarks on the cups; one would expect to findsuch traces if the shafts were driven by bows,which spun in alternating directions.

- 1t is easier for modern man, with his longtradition of practical tinkering, to understandmere ignorance of simple machines than to ap-precia te their application to exdusively non-

utilitarian uses. It strikes him as being sinfullyantisocial to use wheels only to make objects tobury with the dead, but that was the typicalpractice in Precolumbian America. The factthat these attitudes were widely shared makesthem no easier to understand, but it does sug-gest that they were less extraordinary than theymay seem at first. The best statement of thispoint of view is found in the Taoist text ofChuang Tzu, which describes a confrontationbetween a Confucian philosopher and an oldman, a Taoist, who was irrigating his garden bydimbing in and out of the well with a pitcher.When the philosopher described and recom-mended a well-sweep, the old man laughedscornfully, saying that cunning contrivances ledto cunning hearts. The Precolumbian Ameri-cans seem to have shared the Taoist bias againstutilitarian machines. The "cunning contri-vance" whose traces are found in the artifacts of.Pashash represent a philosophy which con-ceived machines as images of the anti-humanand which in the works oflife favored simplicityand inborn skill.

FOR FURTHERREADING:J. M. Adovisio and T. F.Lynch, "Preceramic Textiles and Cordage fromGuitarrero Cave, Peru," American Antiquity 38: 1(1973) 84-90; Elizabeth K. Easby,Pre-Columbian

Jadefrom Costa Rica (New York 1968); Philip A.Means, Fall of the Inca Empire (New York 1932);Anna O. Shepard, Ceramics for the Archaeologist(Washington, D.C. 1965);julio C. Tello,Chavin(Lima 1960); Harry Tschopik,jr., "An AndeanCeramic Tradition in Historical Perspective,"American Antiquity 15:3 (1950) 196-218; ArthurWaley, Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China(Garden City, New York 1956); Gordon R. Wil-ley, An lntroduction to American Archaeology (En-glewood Cliffs, New jersey 1971).

TERENCE GRIEDER was raised in Colorado andstudied art in college there. He holds a Master's De-gree in paintingfrom the University of W isconsin anda Ph.D. in the history of art ¡;'om the University ofPennsylvania, where he specialized in the study ofPrecolumbian art and archaeology. He has been onthe faculty of art history at the University ofTexas atAustin since 1961 and has done fieldwork on ancientTexas rock paintings, Olmec and Maya art in Mexicoand Guatemala. During the last ten years he hasconcentrated on the art of the pre-Inca civilizations ofthe Andean region.

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