Recent overviews of the Formative Period in the Ecuadorian highlands can be found in Bruhns (2003) and Idrovo Uriguen (1999). As mentioned in the introduction, our current state of archaeological knowledge indicates a more densely populated geographic area with perhaps more sociopolitically complex societies for the western Ecuadorian lowlands during the Formative Period when compared to the Ecuadorian highlands. However, it remains difficult to determine whether this was a reality of Formative Ecuador, or whether it might be at least in part due to very different intensities of archaeological investigation in the two areas. We must always bear in mind that great areas of the Ecuadorian highlands are still largely unstudied when compared to the coast. In addition, archaeologists working in the northern and central portions of the highlands must often contend with deeply buried Formative Period occupations either completely buried by, or intercalated with, a bewildering array of volcanic deposits emanating from several different source volcanoes and eruptive episodes, thus making site discovery and excavation more difficult. While it may be that the Formative begins much later in the highlands than in the western lowlands, we may want to reserve judgment on issues of relative population density and sociopolitical complexity until more archaeological research on the highland Formative is completed.
It is also worth noting that in the highlands we do not find the relatively uniform and geographically expansive cultural manifestations that we find in the western lowlands, such as Late Valdivia, Machalilla, or Chorrera. Rather, with the possible exception of Coto-collao, cultural entities in the highlands are generally known and discussed in terms of single sites, as we shall see below. Interestingly, even sites in relatively close proximity often show remarkable differences in ceramic style alongside any similarities that one might expect. And where attempts have been made to treat a generalized ceramic style or cultural tradition as extending beyond a given site, such as a Cerro Narrio “style” or a Challuabamba “tradition,” there is still no consensus that either should be understood as an archaeological culture in the same sense as Valdivia, Machalilla, or Chorrera. Given these differences with the western lowlands, the following three sections provide a brief summary of current archaeological knowledge by general geographic area for the northern, central, and southern highlands, respectively.
World History
