Inferring the functionality of three prehistoric structures in Rio Blanco Ecuador

Summary

The Manteño culture is associated with the integration period, which is the latest pre-Columbian phase in coastal Ecuador. Much of what is known about the Manteño is their U shaped seats that were used by the elites in ceremonies; however, there is a paucity of information on the function of Manteño structures. With the support of Florida Atlantic University I conducted a survey of sixteen structures in Rio Blanco, Ecuador, of the sixteen sites I performed shovel tests on three of the sites that have been previously registered by Angelo Constantine, an Ecuadorian archaeologist. All of the structures had a rectangular design. After I tested the three structures, I analyzed the ceramics hoping to delineate the form and function of the vessels. The majority of my data was based on the ceramics that were recovered from the inside and the outside of the structures. Using a methodology established by Mester (1990), preliminary results indicate that the smaller structures contained considerably more ceramics than the larger structures, which may imply different uses for the different structures. With this data, we can shed more light on the functions of these structures and learn more about the political structure of the Manteño.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage