Spider God Temple Discovered

The spider has held a place in the mythology of many cultures. In African tribes, the spider is a trickster. The Pueblo tribe in the southwest US have a spider creation story. Japanese legends tell of a spider who ensnares travelers. Now, a temple to a spider god has been found in Peru, and it could unearth clues to a culture that has been extinct for thousands of years.

The adobe temple was built by the Cupisnique culture near Collud, along Peru's north coast around 1500 to 1000 b.c.e. They lived in the Lambayeque valley, where another temple was found about a year ago. Archaeologist Walter Alva believes that the temples, along with a third discovered recently, indicate that the valley was part of a center of divine worship.

At the Collud site, experts believe "the spider god carried several meanings." Images combine a spider's neck and head combined with the beak of a large bird and a cat's mouth, and a web radiating out from the spider. It is believed that the web represents hunting nets, which would have been considered "a sign of human progress and prosperity." Richard Burger, an expert on the Chavin culture, says spider deities had great significance to ancient peoples, including divination of rainfall, textiles, hunting, war, and power.