The earliest and most complete record of early settlement comes from the coastal region of southwestern Ecuador. The extensive alluvial plains of the Guayas and Esmeraldas river systems are separated from the Pacific by a range of low mountains and hills. A series of small valleys descend to the sea. A dry tropical environment prevails along the central and southern littoral, with humidity and rainfall increasing significantly in the middle and upper sections of the coastal valleys. The differences in rainfall are very apparent in the vegetation. Cactus and other thorny, xerophytic plants occur along the coastal margins, with gallery forests and tropical cloud forests extending up into the inner reaches of the valleys.
It is in these small coastal valleys that the earliest dated permanent settlements have been discovered. Earlier evidence of territorial hunting, foraging, fishing, and plant cultivation, however, has been recorded on the arid Santa Elena Peninsula, a broad triangle of land that forms the northern lip of the Gulf of Guayaquil; it is the driest part of the Ecuadorian coast. The landscape, formed from uplifted marine terraces, is mostly flat, with shallow drainage channels leading to the coast. The land is barren, except for cactus and other desert-adapted plants, and it is difficult to imagine that humans without the advantage of irrigation were able to eek out a living there. Historical accounts from colonial times, however, reveal a more vegetated past with grasslands and clusters of trees. Carbonized
Wood-charcoal, recovered from early and mid-Holocene archaeological sites, also indicates the former existence of a more treed environment. There are no pollen cores or other substantial data that can be used to reconstruct the environment of the region during the early Holocene; however, the evidence of human presence on the peninsula at that time is incontrovertible. The plant and animal remains recovered from the archaeological sites indicate that open savanna grassland covered much of the area. Inland the hills and valleys presented a more varied environment, a diverse array of tropical plant and animal communities (Stothert 1988).
The site of Las Vegas, which has given its name to the earliest culture of the region, is located in the center of the peninsula and is situated between two drainage channels that are charged with water when the rains come. Today the sea is just 4 km away, but considering that sea level rose during the early Holocene and that the Ecuadorian coast has been subject to tectonic uplift, the distance to the sea at the time of occupation is unknown. What seems certain, however, is that the configuration of the coastline was constantly changing through the mid-Holocene and that resource-rich habitats, such as mangrove lagoons, waxed and waned (Ferdon 1981).
Las Vegas was occupied from about 8500 to 4600 BC. During the same period, more than thirty sites, much smaller than Las Vegas, were created in the surrounding countryside; most of these are small, shallow, and represented by a scatter of stone artifacts, shell, and/or bone. Las Vegas, in contrast, covers an area of more than 2,000 m2 with a depth of deposit varying from 50 cm to 3 m. Karen Stothert, who excavated the site, estimates that it has been reduced in size considerably over time as a result of wind erosion and the encroachment of the two drainage channels. (Stothert 1985, 1988).
The plant and animal remains at Las Vegas indicate exploitation of a broad range of terrestrial and maritime food resources. Along the littoral, mollusks and crustaceans were collected from a variety of habitats, including sandy beaches, rocky inter-tidal zones, mangrove lagoons, and estuaries. A wide range of fish was caught, including some off-shore species, suggesting that the fishing technology may have included watercraft of some sort. Many different species of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians were hunted, most of which probably would have occurred naturally in the tropical savannas of the peninsula, but some species were creatures of the tropical forests (Stothert 1985).
The Las Vegas people must have traveled over a large territory, hunting, fishing, and collecting food from numerous habitats. The pattern calls to mind the subsistence strategies of trekking societies, such as the Shavante, that were ethnographically recorded from the savannas of the southern Amazon basin, or, more generally, Binford’s (1980) model of logistic mobility. The Las Vegas site may have begun as one of many campsites, frequented by collectors moving among many resource zones in the peninsular region, but it soon took on a special significance. Its central location with respect to the other Vegas sites, its significantly greater size and depth of deposit, and the imprint of one small hut and hints of several others (Stothert 1985, 1988) indicate that people spent considerable periods of time in residence at the site. From the base camp of Las Vegas, groups of foragers could have ventured out on day trips, overnights, or more extended journeys to locations where they might hunt, fish or collect, and bring part of the food recovered back to the base camp to share with others. Las Vegas also became the chosen location for funerary rites. Stothert’s excavations recovered skeletal remains of at least 192 individuals (Ubelaker 1988). Solidarity among these people and their historical connection to a particular landscape—a sacred landscape, no doubt—was symbolically represented by the dedication of their principal camp to their dead ancestors.
From the beginning of the Holocene phytoliths attest to the cultivation of squash and lleren, a root crop. By 6000 BC, maize was under cultivation as were bottlegourds (Lageneria siceraria); the latter is recorded by the clear imprint of a gourd in a living floor as well as by phytoliths (Pearsall and Piperno 1990; Piperno and Pearsall 1998; Piperno 2003). There is no evidence that cultivated plants were staple foods, and it seems likely that a broad spectrum of resources was still exploited. The cultivation of maize and squash is compatible with a logistically mobile economy, so long as they remain seasonal or feast foods. Once they assume the role of staple foods, the time investment of planting, watering, weeding, harvesting, processing, and storing interferes with the trekking schedule (Raymond and DeBoer 2006). That the Las Vegas people may have been cultivating plants to provide special feast foods speaks to the importance of ritual in their social life and the need to reaffirm their identity as the people who occupied the Santa Elena Peninsula through periodic communal physical acts.
There were subtle but important changes in the economic strategy over the lifespan of Las Vegas culture, changes in the direction of greater sedentism. The first colonists of the region may have practiced a strategy of residential mobility, using Binford’s (1980) terminology, in which small groups moved from resource area to resource area. Once Las Vegas was established as a base camp, however, the strategy shifted to one of logistic mobility, with a portion of the population probably present in the camp at all times, and task groups trekking out from the base camp to collect food resources. Gourds, some decorated with carvings, were probably the main storage and serving vessels. Funerary rites and ritual feasting reinforced the social ties of the community and the connection to a particular landscape. Burial of the dead at Las Vegas established, at least, the conceptual foundation of a permanent settlement, if not the reality.
Las Vegas ceased being occupied around 4600 BC, as did the other Vegas sites on the peninsula (Stothert 1985). There followed a period of approximately one thousand years during which there is no evidence of human presence in the region. Why the peninsula was abandoned is not known. It may be that tectonic uplift of the coastline outpaced the rise in sea level, which would have been near its present height by the middle of the fifth millennium BC and that mangroves and other rich fishing resources were diminished. It seems that other factors must have been involved, however, since the broad spectrum economy was equally or more dependent on terrestrial resources.
Valdivia
Whatever the cause of the hiatus of occupation on the Santa Elena Peninsula, it was followed by a dramatic change in settlement patterns (Raymond 1993, 1998). The apparent focus of settlement shifted from the driest parts of the peninsula to coastal valleys. With the exception of one small shallow site, situated on the sea cliffs of the peninsula, all of the newly established settlements were located along the floodplains of lower sections of the coastal valleys or in the interior parts of the valleys adjacent to relatively broad segments of valley bottom land. The locations of the sites, as well as microscopic botanical residues indicate that domesticated plants had become staple foods. Maize, beans, squash, and various root crops were cultivated. Ceramic effigies of gourds further attest the cultivation and use of Lageneria siceraria. (Pearsall 2003).
Settlements increased significantly in size, the smallest being several times the size of Las Vegas. Low hills, adjacent to the floodplains, were the favored locations, and the settlements were laid out in an oval or horseshoe shape, with the huts or houses arranged
Around a vacant central arena. The axes of the oval plans ran in a general northerly-southerly direction, with the opening, if there was one, at the south end. In the early settlements the huts were small with a circular floor plan 2 to 3 m across. No clear evidence of the structures has been recovered, but they were probably dome-shaped, with a frame of bent saplings covered with palm or grass thatch (Damp 1984; Raymond 1993).
Beyond the size of the sites and the distinctively different pattern of site distribution in relation to the landscape, the most noticeable characteristic that distinguishes these sites from those of Las Vegas is the presence of pottery. Pottery occurs in great quantities, and from the start it is well-made, well fired, decorated and conforms to a distinctive style, which has been christened the Valdivia style (Hill 1975; Lathrap, Collier, and Chandra 1975; Meggers, Evans, and Estrada 1965). In the earliest assemblages the vessel forms are highly standardized, and although some artistic freedom was allowed in decorating the vessels, there were clear decorative rules that were followed. There is little variation in the style from one site to another, suggesting that ceramic style functioned as an important symbol of cultural identity. Certainly, a visitor from one settlement to another would not have been confused about the etiquette of vessel function (Raymond 1993).
The most highly decorated vessels were the bowls. These were usually finished with a burnished red slip and decorated on the exterior with incised geometric motifs. The motifs have been interpreted as representations of induced visions, with the suggestion that some of the bowls may have functioned as vessels for drinking intoxicating beverages on festival occasions (Damp 1982; Stahl 1985). If that is correct, it is interesting to note that the relative frequency of such bowls is significantly higher at some sites than at others, indicating, perhaps, functional differences among sites with respect to the performance of rituals (White 2004).
Figurines are another distinctive innovation of the Valdivia sites (Blower 2001). At first, figurines were made of stone; later they were made of pottery. The frequent occurance of the figurines, and the fact that they are often found broken and in the trash heaps, indicate that they were probably part of common household rituals, and not curated icons. The ceramic figurines are almost always explicitly engendered, frequently exhibiting female genitalia and breasts.
The Valdivia sites meet the criteria of permanent settlements in terms of size, depth of deposit, length of occupation, and with an inventory of artifacts usually associated with highly sedentary people. The structures are smaller and less substantial than one would expect in a permanent village; however, as Valdivia settlements evolved the size of houses increased to dimensions capable of sheltering extended family units (Zeidler 1984, 1986). At some sites the central arenas were modified into formal ceremonial plazas, with specialized structures for feasting and funerary rites. Although I believe Valdivia settlements qualify as fully sedentary, there is evidence that there was still a significant degree of mobility. Hunting and fishing continued to be the main dietary sources of protein (Stahl 2003). The remains of seafood, both fish and shellfish, are not abundant but occur in significant numbers in the middens of the inner valley sites, as do the bones of deer and forest creatures in the sites nearer the littoral. There may have been an exchange of food resources among the settlements; however, other indicators point toward economic self-sufficiency of each of the larger settlements. So it is probable that hunting and fishing and collecting parties still trekked some distance from their home villages to acquire foods that were not locally available. There also may have been considerable residential mobility among villages, such as that recorded ethnographically among Ge and Borroro populations of southeastern Amazonia (Nimuendaju 1946).
The thousand-year hiatus in the record and the seemingly sudden appearance of the Valdivia sites makes it difficult to understand the processes that transformed the Las Vegas lifeway into a more sedentary one that included permanent villages, pottery and a greater reliance on agriculture. Arguments favoring colonization of the peninsula region by the Valdivians find some support in the discovery of an early Valdivia site in the Guayas Basin, buried under 7 m of sediment (Raymond, Marcos and Lathrap 1980). The fact that more early Valdivia or pre-Valdivia sites have not been found in the interior lowlands of Coastal Ecuador is plausibly explained by the probability that most of the remains of such early occupations either would have been washed away by the huge Guayas tributaries or buried under meters of flood-plain deposits. The dearth of research efforts to discover such evidence must also be taken into account. We need to be cautious, however, in reconstructing the existence of an expanding population of tropical forest fisher-agriculturalists in the Guayas Basin during the early centuries of the fourth millennium BC, based on a single small site and a plausible explanation for the absence of further evidence.
Other scenarios must be entertained as well. It is possible, for example, that Vegas populations were occupying and exploiting the coastal valleys during the early Holocene. It may be that evidence of such occupations has not been discovered because of the scant surface remains on Vegas sites, the heavier vegetative cover in the valleys, which makes it difficult to discover ancient sites, and the disturbance of the landscape wrought by the relatively dense and extensive human populations that have occupied the valleys since the mid-Holocene. Additionally, it does not seem plausible that the small Las Vegas population, occupying the savanna landscape of the southwestern corner of the peninsula, could have persisted in isolation for nearly four thousand years without other communities with which to engage in connubial exchanges.
World History
