Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The archaeology of the Northern Andes was originally defined by grand schemes and theories. Beginning with the work of Jijón y Caamaño and Uhle and continuing up to Meggers, Evans, and Estrada, archaeologists focused on extra-regional influences on cultural origins and ceramic typologies. In more recent years, and especially with the onset of cultural resource management in Ecuador, new approaches have led to innovative results with perspectives that differ from earlier approaches. Our understanding of the societies that lived in the Northern Andes is explored in order to establish a greater knowledge of prehistoric Ecuador that includes community development, ideology, economy, and the chronology of culture change. This symposium brings together some of the recent advances in Northern Andean archaeology.

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  • Agricultura ancestral y dinámica social en Quito desde el Formativo hasta la República Temprana (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Amelia Sánchez Mosquera.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Durante el monitoreo arqueológico de la línea 1 de Metro de Quito se identificó 23 evidencias de campos de cultivos antiguos. Los resultados de los análisis confirman su presencia desde el periodo Formativo, y una persistencia hasta el periodo republicano. Se observó que las evidencias más antiguas se encuentran hacia el NW de la ciudad. Por...

  • An Archaeological History of the Tamaylacha (Jubones) River Basin, circa First Millennium BCE (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Miriam Domínguez.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The earliest written descriptions of the Tamaylacha (Jubones) River and its surroundings were penned by the priest Pedro Arias Dávila (1582) during his journey(s) through Cañari territory. These were followed by the accounts of Francisco José de Caldas who joined the research expedition of von Humboldt and Bonpland in 1804, the accounts by...

  • Castellated Rims and Silica Bodies: Rethinking Valdivia (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jonathan Damp.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Initial attempts to explain the origins of pottery on the coast of Ecuador and in the rest of the Americas focused on transpacific contact. During the last few decades this debate has quieted as the Vegas and Valdivia phases of southwest Ecuador became better known. Nevertheless, there has remained a chronological hiatus between the two...

  • Climate Change in Coastal Ecuador (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sara Ayers-Rigsby. Victoria Dominguez. Valentina Martinez.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Climate change is negatively impacting cultural heritage and archaeological sites worldwide. The site of Balsamaragua, which signifies 2,500 years of human occupation on the coast, is rapidly deteriorating, having lost 10 m of shoreline since 2009. Increased awareness and documentation at the site can help us glean valuable information about...

  • Investigations in the Valley of Cañar, Ecuador: Preliminary Results at Cerro Narrio and Loma de Pinshul (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Atsushi Yamamoto. Juan Pablo Vargas Diaz. Oscar Arias Espinoza.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Cañar Valley, located in the southern part of Ecuador, is one of the most important regions with archaeological evidence in the country. Located in this area are the archaeological sites Cerro Narrio and Loma de Pinshul. Seated on top of natural elevations that rise above the valley, both sites have the peculiarity of facing each other....

  • Landscapes, Architecture, and Settlement Patterns: Reflections on the Territorial Expansion of the Mantenos (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Valentina Martinez. Andres Garzon.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Considering Smith’s (2007) comparative approach to ancient urban planning, this paper suggests that starting circa 1200 CE the Manteño engaged in a process of increased growth and expansion that led to a shared, standardized settlement strategy across an environmentally diverse area. This shared settlement strategy reflects a complex process...

  • Lidar Application in the Cerros Hojas-Jaboncillo, Manabi, Ecuador (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Juan Jijon.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Currently, precise and high-resolution lidar (light detection and ranging) data is increasingly important for the detection of archaeological settlements. Through this technology it has been possible to detect a series of landscape modifications in the Hojas-Jaboncillo massif that could be of prehispanic origin. During the field verification...

  • New Manteños Social Spaces: The Materiality of Ligüiqui (Manabí, Ecuador) (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Manuel Castro-Priego. Lauro Olmo-Enciso. Marcos Octavio Labrada Ochoa.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The "Perduraciones" project, which has been taking place in the central area of the Ecuadorian coast since 2018, has focused part of their research on the characterization of the social space resulting from the process of articulating European colonization on the present coast of Ecuador during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. In the...

  • Salt Exploitation in the Northern Ecuadorian Highlands: A Substance of Transformations (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jorge Flores.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Salt extraction was always important to local communities due to its uses in food preparation, food preservation, therapeutic practices, and ritual performances. The importance of this mineral for food conservation, nutrition, and other human physiological needs is widely known. However, few local studies have specified the role of this...