Not really Fiction - Scenario musings

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Koakai
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Re: Not really Fiction - Scenario musings

Post by Koakai » Wed Aug 20, 2014 4:11 pm

I suppose I ought to consider my idea from South America as well. There is a variety of shell called the Spondylus, that is found in graves and ritual contexts through out the Andes. From pots depicting it, to necklaces, to dust being scattered, it is mostly popular because of a lurid red colour that appears on its shell.

http://archaeology.about.com/od/boneand ... ndylus.htm

There is also a tradition of spirtual sites, Huaca's, eating special things. Food of the gods, as an article I just found, noted.

When it came to ideas about the Spondylus, the depth at which it is found, the vast trading fleets dedicated to finding it and moving it about, I was wondering if in some way it was tied to the Deep Ones. Perhaps even there is an isolated colony of the deep ones, trapped far inland that need these shells to survive. Or maybe from the tradition of mountain top burials, they have captured a deep one and isolated it far from the water, feeding it just enough essence via these shells in order to keep it alive. But when the empire collapsed, this stopped. And it froze. You as archaeologists have found this odd body, and are hauling it down from the heights for study, only to have it thaw and awaken once more.

Just ideas.

I loved these shells when I was taking my archaeology degree. One of my last papers was on them for an upper level pre-history of the Andes class. If I could have gotten samples, I might have even had a thesis idea for grad school about the ecological impact of extensive collection and whether or not the trade was being forced to go farther and farther afield as the size of the shell offerings dropped over time. (Never had the data to back this up. Most papers were in Spanish, and google was not a big thing then for translations).
PH.D candidate -M.U. Western Annex


Dr. Gerard
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Re: Not really Fiction - Scenario musings

Post by Dr. Gerard » Wed Oct 15, 2014 11:27 am

Agreed! I missed this post over the summer. Great seed for a scenario. What a strange phenomenon.
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Koakai
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Re: Not really Fiction - Scenario musings

Post by Koakai » Mon Dec 08, 2014 6:48 pm

I wind up doing forum visits in chunks. Times spent on a forum and then time away, so I missed the response here.

When I was really into these shells I remember reading that these shells were so highly prized, even one of the early Spanish conquers got into the act of gathering and selling them. This was a huge industry before the white man came. If you have ever heard of the Kon Tiki, it was a replica of these ships that explorers documented being used in this trade.

Now that I have mutilated a scenario based on something completely different, maybe I'll try to figure out what mythos beastie works best with this sort of thing. Deep ones off the coast, surely.
PH.D candidate -M.U. Western Annex

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