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 Also used to make tools, scrapers, knives, arrowheads and hoe blades are just a few of the uses that Stone Age man had for shells.
Mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell were the most popular for trade in ancient China.The relative scarcity of a particular shell or the specific way in which the shell was fashioned often determined its value.
From turquoise and shells in particular, archeologists can identify trade routes throughout the American Southwest, Mexico and Central America. |
ancient assets
From long before recorded history, shell was highly valued across continents and cultures. Used principally for three purposes, shell functioned as a medium of currency or trade, as personal adornment, and as an important ingredient in ceremonial objects possessing spiritual or talismanic attributes -- sometimes fulfilling all three purposes at the same time.
shell money from sumer, ca. 3,000 bc, actual size 1" In 1917, excavating in what is now Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico (c. 1400 AD), archeologist Earl Halstead Morris uncovered nine genera of shells, many of them Pacific Ocean species such as abalone, olivella, conus, and marine bivalves, which were cut and drilled into beads, pendants, or foundations for mosaics.
Among the most ancient artifacts to have survived, shell and stone beads are also used by archaeologists as clues to ancient trade routes since they are often made of non-local materials. For instance, large amounts of shell objects discovered in tombs in China's Yunnan region indicate that it had long-term trading relations with coastal countries in Pacific regions. And decorative shells from the Pacific, Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico have been found throughout North America in sites far from their place of origin.
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The first metal coin, an oval shape minted in the Greek colony of Lydia around 670 BC, was modeled after a cowry shell.The 'money cowrie' was the principle currency used by Europeans in purchasing slaves in West Africa, an area in which the shell does not occur naturally; in 1522, the price of a slave in Benin was between 5,460 and 6,370 cowries.Even as late as 1867, 67,000 hundredweight of the 'money cowrie' passed through the port of Lagos, to be used as payment for oil seed.The word "cowrie" comes from the South Indian word kauari
.
Abul Hasan Ali Al-Masudi (ca. 888 - 957 AD), born in Baghad, has been called "the Herodotus of the Arabs." (He is also cited as Masoodi or Mazoudi.) |
cowries as currency
With regard to trade, shell had several important qualities that helped to transform it from a trading object to a form of currency that in the 'civilized world' lasted until the introduction of metal currency around 600 BC.
The most important quality was shell's great durability, second was its portability, and third was its various easily recognizable forms. Shells were particularly useful as money because they could be strung in long strips of proportionate value or they could be used to provide a single unit value in exchange.
cypraea moneta, the 'money cowrie'
the 'bank of the ocean'
In the mid-tenth century, an Arab chronicler, al-Masoodi, who wrote about the Maldives in his book Murooj-udh-Dhahab (The Golden Meadow), said of the cowrie:
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When missionaries first came to the Solomon Islands, they were alarmed by the long-term debt incurred in bride-buying and tried to impose a limit of just five tafuliae strings for a wife.
Each tafuliae has ten strings of colored shells each approximately seven feet long, although pieces cab be broken off to make lesser payments.Today, even though modern money is used for everyday business, in some areas of the Solomon Islands tradition still demands the use of shell money, particularly when 'purchasing' brides.
Mussels, pearl shells and the Chambered Nautilus are also used but hold less value.
Shell color has traditionally been very important. Pink shells are the most valuable, followed by orange, brown, white and black. And, just as with gems, some shells can be heat-treated to obtain a more valuable color.One of the most highly prized shells has been the Spiny Rock Oyster (family: Spondylus) -- also known as the Chrysanthemum shell -- which has pink lips that produce the rarer and more highly prized pink discs. |
tafuliae: the bride price
Oceanic peoples used a variety of shells in trade and shell money was the traditional currency of the Pacific Islands, particularly the Solomon Islands where beautiful strings of painstakingly carved discs of shell, normally done by the girls and women are strung together to make tafuliae or tabu (New Guinea).
spiny rock oyster
makin' money
Tafuliae continues to be produced in the Solomons but mainly for the tourist trade. To make tafuliae, thousands of tiny pieces of broken shell are smoothed down to uniform sized discs by rubbing them between two grooved stones. Then each disc is polished with a grinding stone and black sand, and a hole drilled in the middle so they can be threaded together with vine. Traditionally a piece of flaked quartz from a river bed would be used to make the holes but today small steel hand drills are often used instead. The whole process is very time consuming even for a skilled craftsman and the quality of the workmanship is crucial to the value of the finished piece. 
young solomon islander wearing 10-string shell necklace
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The reason for the shell's multiple names is that in the Kimberly region there are five different traditional language families and each language family has a number of different languages and dialects.
Seen as the inhabitant of permanent water holes, the Rainbow Serpent controls life?s most precious resource, water. The Pitjantjatjara people, deep in Australia's Western Desert, considered the luminous pearl shells to be the "concentrated essence of water," and hence an emblem of life.The close affinity between water and snakes in Aboriginal cultures may stem from the presence of most Australian snakes in the vicinity of permanent water. |
riji and the rainbow serpent
Aboriginal people from the Kimberly region -- Australia's northwest coast -- distributed pearl shells along trade routes that stretched half way across the vast arid continent. Kimberly shells have been found as far afield as Yuendumu in the desert, south-eastern Arnhem Land, Queensland and South Australia. Considered objects of great value, the shells are known as riji, jakuli or lonkalonka in the Bardi language.
riji: pearl shell, ochre, human hair cord, pre-1940, macleay museum Both the decorated and plain pearl shells are used for rain-making and magical purposes, for trade, in ceremonies and as personal adornments such as necklaces or pubic covers when they are worn attached by belts or necklaces of hairstring.
But the riji are especially associated with water, spiritual powers and healing -- due to the luminous shimmering quality of their surfaces. The Bardi (also known as Baada) equate the light reflecting off the shells to lightning flashes, prominent during the monsoon, and to lights flashing off the cheeks of the Rainbow Serpent, closely linked to water and rain.
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The Eastern Woodland tribes -- which included the Algonquins -- like their predecessors the Hopewell were renowned for their elaborate grave offerings of copper plates and shell beads.
Traditions and myths of another Eastern Woodland tribe, the Iroquois, link the appearance of original wampum to the period of formation of their confederacy, the Five Nations, sometime between 1400 and 1600 AD.
Dutch traders in the New World were the first Europeans to adopt wampum as a legal form of currency.
A typical large wampum belt of six feet in length might contain 6000 beads or more.
The phrase "shelling out" is derived from the widespread use of wampum as symbolic currency.
In all, there were eight standard denominations of wampum. The court ruled that "each denomination was to be made of a string of unbroken and unblemished beads" (defined as "without breaches...without deforming spots").
One New Jersey wampum factory, catering to Native Americans, remained in business until 1859. |
wild about wampum
In North America, shells, initially used in jewelry and other decorative items, also served as currency during the era of barter and trade. Participated in a trading economy that capitalized on North America's extensive waterways, trade existed from tribe to tribe in a leapfrog manner so that while wampum from the Atlantic coast found its way to the Dakota's, Minnesota copper turned up in Algonquian graves.
replica, hawkeye's wampum sash from "last of the mohicans" White beads were laboriously cut from several species of whelk as well as conch shells and quahog clam, while the thick hinge of the clam provided pink and purple beads. Used in various ways, wampum beads were strung together to form necklaces and bracelets, or used simply to decorate clothing, weapons and utensils.
However, it was only wampum belts themselves that were considered as currency. Besides their use in sacred ceremonies, wampum belts served as a form of money to ransom captives and pay compensation for crimes and injuries, as well as to reward shamans for their services. Most important of all, the belts were used (in lieu of signatures) to confirm area ties and agreements between tribes.
quahog clam Used by colonists and Native Americans alike throughout the 1600's, in an attempt to standardize wampum's value the Massachusetts General Court in 1648 voted to officially accept it in two forms: as single beads (called seawant and not considered very valuable), and in strands of set denominations (called peag).
Although nine years after the Boston mint opened, the Massachusetts' wampum law was repealed, as late as 1693 commuters on the New York and Brooklyn ferry could pay with either two pence in silver or eight stivers in wampum (there were four beads to the stiver, which was the Dutch equivalent of the English penny). It's believed that the last recorded exchange of wampum as money was in New York in 1701.
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Dentalia pretiosum
are only found in one place, Nootka Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island, BC, where they were (and still are) harvested by the Nootka, a First Nations people also known as the Nuu-Chah-Nulth.
Scaphopoda
are a distinctive class of Mollusks commonly known as "tusk shells" because their shells are conical and slightly curved to the dorsal side, making the shells look like tiny tusks.
Similar to dentalia, long tubular beads made from conch shells and bone known as "hairpipes" were used by Native Americans as hair ornaments and to make elaborate breastplates.
Abalone and olivella shells were also used for trade but were not as valuable.
A burial mound found in British Columbia's Fraser Valley contained a well-preserved skeleton of a middle-aged man of high rank who had been buried on his side with artifacts such as copper disks, abalone shells and a necklace of seven thousand dentalia shells. |
deals for dentalia
But whereas wampum made of the quahog clam was the preferred currency on the eastern half of North America, it was dentalia pretiosum, small, slender horn-like Pacific Ocean shells also known as 'tooth shells' and "Indian money tusks," that were popular with the coastal Native Americans of western North America.
antalis pretiosum, the "indian money tusk" shell Traded the breadth and length of North America -- down the Mississippi, into Alaska, and up the Eastern seaboard -- a century and a half ago this harvest, whether woven into dresses or jewelry or simply strung in prescribed lengths, would hopscotch along trading paths that reached across the continent.
dentalium cape, life-long learning on-line
Among many Native American tribes such as the Chinook, dentalia was valued in the same way as were canoes and slaves, all of which connoted great wealth and which were prized possessions to be distributed among chosen survivors after a warrior's death.
The only ancient type of shell bead still produced in quantity today by Native Americans is the heishi, made by Navajos and some pueblo people who still use the ancient techniques.
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A conch shell is blown during sacred Hindu rites to rid the earth of negative energy.The warriors of ancient India blew conchs to announce battle, one of which is famously represented in the beginning of the war of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata
, the famous Hindu epic.
One traditional Vedic religious symbol also common to Buddhism is the Dakshinavarti Shankh
or the "conch that can be held upright in the left hand."
Ancient Indian belief classifies the conch into male and female varieties. The thicker-shelled bulbous one is thought to be male (purusha) and the thin-shelled slender conch to be female (shankhini).The sacred conch (scientific name xancus pyrum coroninensis) is found in abundance along the western side of the Bay of Bengal, bordered by India's Eastern Ghats, all the way down to the Sri Lankan coast.
In Sanskrit, the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism are known as ashtamangala
--
ashta meaning "eight" and
mangala meaning "auspicious."
During the practice of Tibetan Buddhist rituals today, the conch is used both as a musical instrument and as a container for holy water. |
the sacred conch
Shells have had and continue to have immense importance in the religious practices and mythologies of various cultures and religions, from both Hindus and Buddhists on the Indian sub-continent to Native Americans of North America.
xancus pyrum coroninensis, the 'indian conch'
the conch and creation
As a major Hindu article of prayer, the conch's trumpeting sound, accompanied by ceremonial bells, centers the human consciousness on God. The God of Preservation, Vishnu, is said to hold a special conch, Paanchajanya (meaning "having control over the five classes of beings") that represents life as it has come out of life-giving waters. According to Hindu mythology, the Paanchajanya emerged during the churning of the Ksheerasagara (ocean of milk) by the devas (gods) and asuras (demons). As it rose out of the ocean, its tremendous level of noise frightened the asuras who appealed to Vishnu to save them. Lord Vishnu obliged, taking charge of the conch shell. Thus, the primordial sound of creation, that is the Omkar or Pranavanadham, was controlled, becoming ever after one of Vishnu's five weapons. 
tibetan boy with conch Conch shells which spiral to the right in a clockwise direction are a rarity and are considered especially sacred. The right-spiraling movement of such a conch is believed to echo the celestial motion of the sun, moon, planets and stars across the heavens. The hair whorls on Buddha's head spiral to the right, as do his fine body hairs, the long curl between his urna (eyebrows), and also the conch-like swirl of his navel.
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The Queen Charlotte Islands are an island archipelago approximately 60 miles from the Canadian mainland, 30 miles from the southern tip of the Alaskan panhandle and 100 miles northwest of Vancouver Island. Comprised of 138 separate islands, most of its population live on two islands: Graham Island in the north and Moresby Island in the south.
Rose Spit is now a part of Naikoon Provincial Park on Graham Island in the northern part of the Queen Charlotte Islands -- Naikoon or "long nose" being a corruption of the Haida name for Rose Spit.
The Raven is known by many names, including He'maskas (Bella Bella tradition), Txamsem or We-gyet (Tsimshian), Nankil'slas (Haida), Yehl (Tlingit), and
Kwekwaxa'we (Kwakiutl).The maternal grandfather of Bill Reid (1920-1998) was a Haida silversmith and carver. In 1958, while working for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Reid accepted an invitation to create part of a Haida village for the University of British Columbia, a turning point in his career. He went on to revive traditional Haida carving techniques and designs, achieving international prominence as an artist.
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children of the good people
Half a world away, the Haida of Canada's Queen Charlotte Islands (known to the Haida as Haida Gwaii) off the northern coast of British Columbia tell a story of how the first people emerged from a gigantic clam shell on the beach at Rose Spit.
the first humans
Nankil'slas, the Raven -- the most powerful creature from myth time, a trickster and a shapeshifter -- was lonely. He wanted companionship -- and there was no one on which to play tricks. Wandering on the beach one day, he heard noise coming from a clam shell. Peering down into the opening between the halves of the shell, he saw it was full of tiny creatures, cowering in fear at his shadow. They were terrified by Nankil'slas and the big world outside the shell. So, Nankil'slas leaned his great head close to the shell, and with his smooth trickster's tongue that had got him into and out of so many misadventures in his troublesome existence, he coaxed and cajoled and coerced the little creatures to come out and play in his wonderful, shiny, new world. Very strange creatures they were: two legged like Nankil'slas, but otherwise very different. They had no feathers or fur. Their skin was pale and they were naked except for the dark hair upon round, flat-featured heads. Instead of strong wings, they had think stick-like arms that waved and fluttered constantly. Feeling strange protective urges, Nankil'slas would again and again provide for the creatures he had found in the clamshell. In time he would bring them the Sun, Moon and Stars, Fire, Salmon and Cedar, teaching them the secrets of hunting, and the world. And this is how Nankil'slas liberated Haada Laas, "Children of the Good People," who represent the Eagle and Raven Clans, the two main Haida complementary tribal subdivisions.
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Mount Blanco (Tsisnaasjini') in Colorado, considered to be the Navajo?s religious eastern boundary, is also known as Yoolgaiidziil Whiteshell Mountain.
In the Navajo creation story, without Changing Woman (?nihima' -- our mother), the human race would have ended, as the adults were, old, past child bearing age and the young children related by blood.
Navajo representation of women is characterized by an "active reality" which refers to Navajo social and economic life, defined by movement and change. Men, on the other hand, represent a "static reality" identifiable with the rigidly structured Navajo ceremonial life, which for the most part is male-dominated.
In some versions of the creation myths, White Shell Woman and Changing Woman are sisters; some call her White Shell Woman instead of Changing Woman, while other sources acknowledge that they are different names for the same deity.
Changing Woman's Dine' name can be translated as "the woman who is transformed time and time again."
When Changing Woman begins her transformation from old woman back to young, the two canes she rests on are made of white shell and turquoise, the two materials most intimately identified with her.
All seeds and corn -- literally, the gift of life -- originate with one of Changing Woman's manifestations, White Shell Woman.
For a girl's all important four-day puberty ceremony, called Hozhonigi
-- Making the Path of Life Beautiful -- she wears jewelry of turquoise and white shell.
In the Eagle Catching Myth, Changing Woman's son, Monster Slayer, produces clothing by playing a flute over a bundle which was brought to his Mount Taylor home by the sisters White Shell Woman and Turquoise Woman.
Because at one time she preserved their people, Spider Woman is one of the Dine's most important and honored deities.
In actuality, the Navajo learned how to weave from neighboring Pueblo Indians around the mid-to-late seventeenth century.
Dine society is matrilineal; a woman "controls the hogan, built on land that was set aside for her by her family; she owns the children, which belong to her clan, her sheep, the product of her sheep and livestock, her jewelry and all blankets she may weave and the income from the sale of any of her property."
Most Navajo families today live in trailers or small houses while maintaining a hogan for ritual puposes only.
The Navajo consider hogans to be "alive" and must periodically purify and feed them. |
benevolence and balance
In no culture is shell, particularly white shell, given as much importance as in that of the Navajo. A part of the very fabric of the American Southwest, the Navajo or the Dine' -- the people -- as they refer to themselves, hold sacred four stones: turquoise (doot'izhii), abalone (diichi), jet (b??shzhinii) and white shell (yoogaii).
Navajo mythologies, especially those revolving around creation, abound with stories relating to white shell. No character is more compelling than Changing Woman, the central figure in the Blessingway who holds within her the power of creation and protection. At the top of the Dine' pantheon, she is the deity most likely to help individuals in need.
changing woman; artist, helen hardin
In their book "American Indian Healing Arts: Herbs, Rituals, and Remedies for Every Season of Life," Barrie Kavasch, an herbalist and ethnobotanist, and health writer Karen Baar have this to say on her constant metamorphosis:
Changing Woman symbolizing balance and benevolent power is also independent. Paul Zobrod, in his compilation of Navajo myths, "Dine Bahane: The Navajo Creation Story," notes that when the Sun, Changing Woman's husband, asks her to move to a special house in the West with him (so she can be with him at night), Changing Woman asks for her own special house in the West. When the Sun questions her request, she replies:
It is after this, says Gladys Reichard in "Navaho Religion: A Study of Symbolism," that that the Sun declares the scope of Changing Woman's power:
Another strong woman in Navajo legend is Spider Woman (Na ashje?ii'Asdz??), who taught Navajo women how to weave.
the first loom
spider woman The crosspoles were made of sky and earth cords, the warp sticks of sun rays, the healds of rock crystal and sheet lightning. The batten was a sun halo and for the comb he chose a white shell to clean strands in a combing manner. There were four spindles: one a stick of zigzag lightning with a whorl of cannel coal; one a stick of flash lightning with a whorl of turquoise; a third had a stick of sheet lightning with a whorl of abalone; a rain streamer formed the stick of the fourth, and its whorl was white shell. White shell also plays a part in the Navajo hooghanor hogan, the traditional dwelling place for Navajo families and center of religious ceremonies. Father Berard who gathered many legends for his 1910 book, "An Ethnologic Dictionary," recounts the building of the first hogan as it was told to him:
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- abalone
- almandine garnet
- amber
- amethyst
- ametrine
- apatite
- aquamarine
- boulder opal
- calcite
- carnelian
- chalcedony
- chrysoprase
- cinnabar
- citrine
- coral
- druse
- fire opal
- fluorite
- fossilized shell
- garnet
- green garnet
- hematite
- hessonite
- iolite
- jasper
- labradorite
- lapis lazuli
- malachite
- milky quartz
- moldavite
- moonstone
- mother-of-pearl
- obsidian
- onyx
- opal-common
- paua
- peridot
- peruvian opal
- prehnite
- pyrite
- quartz
- rose quartz
- rutilated quartz
- serpentine
- shells
- smoky quartz
- tanzanite
- tourmalinated quartz