" Archaeologists have found the oldest image yet of an Andean religious icon. The 4,000-year-old carving of the Staff god - a fanged creature with splayed feet, holding a snake and a staff - is on a bowl made from a seed pod.", reports Nature. You can read the story in german at Spiegel Online.

Its a great found, I agree. There are some deities in andean culture, which you can trace thousands of years back through all the different cultures and times. Most popular was the feline, which is alive still today in many religions of south american indians (of course, its appearance is not need to be caused by cultural exchange). Before this newest finding, the earliest appearance of the staff god, not mentioned in the articles, was the Chavin Culture. A impressive stone, Raimondi Stone, clearly shows the staff god. Chavin, and the mentioned Tiwanaku Culture have been very different. Between them have been a lot of other cultures worshipping the staff god, among them Paracas and Ica. So, it`s interesting, that now they have found proof of a culture before Chavin, also worshipping the staff god. Another deity from Chavin was the so called "Smiling God", which is shown on a huge stone called El Lanzon. But this god probably was only from local importance.

For further reading on the Chavin Culture I recommend this paper from one of the most achknowledged scientist reasearching chavin culture, John Rowe.

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