Humanity in the course of its cultural development has left some testimony of its acoustic skill, evidenced in the sound-producing objects found across diverse contexts throughout history. On the Pacific coast of the Republic of Ecuador, the creation and development of one such acoustic device is the whistle bottle, locally known as "botella silbato" (Crespo 1966; de Espinoza 2006; Estrada et al. 1962; Ontaneda 2007) which has been attributed to the Chorrera culture (900 BC to 100 BC).
Chorrera culture occupied the area of the Ecuadorian coast from the province of Esmeraldas in the north, to the valley of Jubones in the province of El Oro to the south, achieving its greatest development along the central coast of the province of Manabí. In addition, it spread to the provinces of Cañar and Azuay. Evidence of this culture has also been found in Santo Domingo de los Colorados (Estrada et al. 1962).
Because the development and distribution of the Chorrera culture originated within the territory of the Republic of Ecuador, Estrada et al. (1962) catalogue it as a distinctly Ecuadorian culture. However, for de Espinoza (2006) the culture not only extended over large geographic territories within the country, but also, for many centuries, influenced the technical and artistic development of distant peoples in places such as Mesoamerica, Peru and Argentina.
The culture advanced economically based on agriculture, the result of its privileged geographical location on the shores of the sea or of large rivers such as the Daule and Babahoyo, which facilitated both fishing and the development of agriculture. With basic needs met, this allowed time to venture into other activities identifying a more settled lifestyle and the availability of leisure, such as stone and shell carving, textiles and working ceramics with great technical and artistic capabilities (Crespo Toral 1966; Ortiz 1981; de Espinoza 2006). The Chorrera culture is outstanding in its ceramic craft practice, an activity that demanded the careful selection of materials, technical knowledge, manual skills and aesthetic qualities to manipulate and explore the clay's potential.
Scott (1998) has corroborated the contributions of Meggers and Evans (1957) regarding the existence of an influential Chorrera style on the Ecuadorian coast, the same one that spread into the north of Ecuador and south-west Colombia. This style was characterised by the representations of naturalistic figures with monumental, serene, bulky features, with striking colours. Citing Estrada, Scott (1998) recognises as outstanding the type of heads called Solid Matte and Hollow Matte within the Final Chorrera period. He concludes that the key decorative features of the ceramic Chorrera style were incised, iridescent paint, red paint in sections or with black in incised areas. As for the shape of the objects, these could be bowls with ring base, whistle bottles with vertical slope and flat handle, 'spittoons', napkin ring earmuffs, and Hollow Matte figures and solid naturalists (Scott 1998). Additionally, the moulded anthropomorphic statuettes (Cummins 2003) can be seen as figurative sculptures and not as figures to be destroyed in rituals like those at Valdivia (Ontaneda 2007). For more recent definitions of the Chorrera Culture and its relationship with the northern Andes, see Zeidler (2008).
For Gartelmann (2006, 168), the art of the pre-Columbian cultures of Ecuador seems to have been heavily laden with a symbolic meaning without implying that many of the works were created only with exclusive artistic intention. This can be evidenced in the Chorrera style embodied in ceramic objects. However, he considers that a greater development was the representation of symbolic religious, magical, social and even economic meaning (Gartelmann 2006, 168). Certain works of art were used, for example, to appease ancestors and gods, ensure good harvests, cure the sick or as a symbol of unity of clans and peoples (Gartelmann 2006, 168). According to Klumpp (2017, 4), the potters of the Ecuadorian coast began to manufacture ceramics with technique and artistic excellence unparalleled in the pre-Columbian record of this region. Some of these fine ceramics, intended for ceremonial use, were decorated using an almost transparent paint, whose color had a metallic reflection of silver or red. This is the so-called iridescent paint, which is often found on bowls, plates and whistle bottles. The designs of this painting are composed of bands and dots, which generally are the width of a fingertip. In summary, it can be assumed that for the Chorrera potter, the transformation of specularite into paint and its use to create iridescent designs, was a spiritual and sacred activity, which was charged with symbols rooted in the principles of an Andean cosmology.
All this suggests that the selection and transformation of the ceramic materials via colourants were charged with a symbolism based on their Andean cosmovision. In the specific case of the whistle bottle, apart from the aesthetic and utilitarian function of storing and transporting liquids, some authors attribute ceremonial functions for their 'magical concept' (Crespo 1966). For other researchers, like Acosta (1974), the vessel representing water is a source of life-giving and it stands out in the myths and art of ancient America as a symbolic vessel, an inexhaustible provider of food, because it contains the fluid from which everything came (Acosta 1974, 35). For Gartelmann (2006) it is evidence of a possible musical sensibilty and an attachment to nature. Stat (in Gartelmann 2006) suggests that people are sensitive to the tonal frequencies that the objects emit and react accordingly. Ontaneda (2007) emphasises the use of the whistle bottle in the cult for ritual libations of chicha (a corn-based drink), since it is often found in funeral offerings. Weinstein (2007) interprets the artefacts from a metaphorical viewpoint, through the cosmology of the South American myth (past and present), seeing them as gourds, representing containers that contain life and death as plants that possibly were early natural containers. These ceramic objects, "made of earth and water, transformed by fire and air" (Weinstein 2007, 325) also symbolise the maternal womb of mother earth. The absence of wear in these objects allowed Weinstein (2007) to propose that they were used as funeral offerings. All these authors are in general agreement about the spiritual relationship of these objects with funeral, ritual and festive events, and consider that they were used exclusively by priests in ceremonies, mainly of water worship.
When looking at their construction, the whistle bottles required knowledge and technical mastery of clay, espcially during the construction of the acoustic system. Because the loss of moisture of this material causes the object to contract when passing through the different states of the construction process (from wet, to rigid, to dry and finally firing), if there is no optimal moisture control in the assembly process the whistle can move in a way that would change or cancel the sound.
The representations, embodied in different bottles with multiple containers, contain one or two whistles that are part of a complex internal acoustic system, allowing the production of sound through aerodynamics and/or hydraulics (the movement of liquid). For this reason they could be regarded as objects of great technological achievement in the field of sound for that time.
Existing research on this type of object has been scarce and usually focuses on formal, functional, acoustic-structural analysis. Using the knowledge and practice of ceramics, this research aims to enhance the picture set out by Crespo in his pioneering document in which the evolution of this object is described (1966).
Based on the functional and formal characteristics of these objects, Crespo (1966) determined six evolutionary phases. In this work we analyse the external components that make up the double ellipsoid ornithomorphic bottle with a whistle of Chorrera-Bahía culture (an object belonging to phase five according to Crespo). In addition, it includes the analysis of the acoustic effect that occurs in the sound device, which is observed through the external holes located in the head of the bird.
The methodology used for the present investigation consists of the documentary and bibliographic analysis of the subject, the construction of two replicas in the ceramic laboratory of the Universidad Central del Ecuador, and the testing and recording sounds of the original bottle and the replicas, analysed in an acoustic laboratory. This allows us to demonstrate the importance of the arrangement of the components of the acoustic system and to show the different ways these objects produce sound.
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