Message in a Bottle: Assessing the Impacts of Looting on the Archaeological Record of the Jama River Valley, Coastal Ecuador.

Summary

Northern Manabí Province of coastal Ecuador has long been a center of archaeological looting and illicit trade in antiquities derived from successive cultural occupations of the Formative Period Valdivia and Chorrera cultures and the long Jama-Coaque cultural tradition, a sequence spanning some 3,500 years. The ceramic artifacts from this trade are some of the most complex and elaborate found anywhere in Ecuador. They grace the shelves of national and regional museums, and numerous private collections throughout the country, as well as private museums throughout the world, yet surprisingly little comparable material has been found in scientifically documented archaeological contexts. This paper assesses the negative impacts of this unabated looting on the regional archeological record based on the results of systematic archaeological survey in the Jama River Valley, a major locus of Jama-Coaque culture. Special emphasis is placed on the use of these unprovenienced materials for interpretations of prehispanic iconography and religion. Finally, some suggestions for curtailing this illicit activity are also addressed.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Current Perspectives in Ecuadorian Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage