The image on the 4000-year-old gourd fragment (left) reveals the fanged teeth and splayed feet of the "staff god" when drawn (right) (Photo: Jonathan Haas, Drawing: Jill Seagard, The Field Museum) Gourd fragments unearthed in Peru have pushed back clear evidence of religion in the Americas by a thousand years, to 2250 BC.

The two key pieces are incised with an image of the fanged "staff god", a major deity in later Andean cultures. They were discovered at a burial site in the Patavilca River valley and dated using carbon isotopes.


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