TUMACO

Tumaco lies just north of the border between Colombia and Ecuador in the hot, extremely humid zones of dense forest and mangrove swamp of the Pacific coastal plain (Figure 21.1). The earliest sedentary occupation occurs during the Inguapl I phase (600-350 BC), and substantially more settlement is registered in Inguapl II (350 BC-AD 350). This is the period of the Tumaco-La Tolita tradition (Bouchard 1982-83, 1984; Patino 2003), best known from both Ecuador and Colombia for the complicated ceramic vessels and figures of elaborately costumed individuals recovered by looters and purchased by collectors (Patino and Hernandez 2001). Ornamental objects of gold, along with the elaborate ceramic pieces, are taken to be symbolic of high social status in life and in death, and the “chiefdom” label has been applied to Inguapl II society (Patino 1992, 2003; Rodriguez 2002; Patino and Hernandez 2001). Tombs with lavish offerings of gold work and ceramics are known from La Tolita, although, unlike the earthen mounds and statues of the Alto Magdalena, they were completely subterranean. Their identification as elite tombs depends, then, not on their character as impressive permanent visible monuments, but rather on the unusual richness and fineness of the offerings included (Rodriguez 2002).

Here we concentrate on a region of about 25 km2 near Tumaco, although the trajectory of social change there seems consistent with what is known of the larger area from which Tumaco-La Tolita ceramics are known, which runs some 300 km along the Pacific coast. Inguapl II occupation was concentrated in mangrove and interfluvial zones, and most sites are very small surface scatters, but others are as large as 20 ha (Patino 2003). Artificial mounds ranging up to as high as 8 m were constructed in stages (Bouchard 198283, 1984; Patino 2003). These were common at both large and small settlements, but not ubiquitous. Although burials of various kinds are encountered in them, their fundamental purpose seems more architectural: to raise the structures on their tops above the surrounding level. These structures may have been elite residences or public or ceremonial buildings (Patino 2003). Marine and estuarine subsistence resources were complemented by raising maize, squash, manioc, and other crops—sometimes on raised fields constructed to make poorly drained local areas productive (Patino 1995, 2003). An association between these intensively cultivated raised field zones and larger settlements with bigger mounds may suggest greater involvement by elites in the subsistence economy than appears to have been the case in the Alto Magdalena or Tierradentro.

El Morro times (AD 350-600) witnessed a major decline in numbers of sites, and a ceramic complex different enough from Inguapi II to suggest cultural discontinuity, although no occupational hiatus is observed (Bouchard 1982-83, 1984; Patino and Hernandez 2001; Patino 2003). Mounds and raised field complexes were abandoned, and elaborate ceramic figures were no longer made. El Morro is taken to represent either the gradual disappearance of hierarchical social organization (Patino 2003), or at least a considerable reduction in complexity (Rodriguez 2002). A hiatus is proposed for the two centuries following El Morro, until the archaeological record reappears, about AD 800, in the form of the Bucheli-Caunapi phase, represented by light occupation atop Inguapi II mounds and along river banks, which lasts until the Spanish Conquest (Bouchard 1982-83, 1984; Patino 2003). Little evidence of social hierarchy, political centralization, or intensive production is seen.