Beyond the Cultural Pale?: Contextualizing El Morro de Tulcán within Regional Earthen Mound Development in the Northern Andes
Author(s): Ryan Hechler; William Pratt; David Brown
Year: 2016
Summary
El Morro de Tulcán is a massive earthen mound located near Popayán in southern Colombia. This structure towers over the surrounding landscape with a height of 50 meters at its highest point. This pyramid is an anomaly within the surrounding cultural vicinity, where tolas (i.e., earthen mounds) are a rare form of construction throughout much of Colombia. The closest region of tola development is in high concentrations in northern Ecuador, amongst the Caranquis and Yumbos. Research at El Morro de Tulcán has revealed some peculiar similarities in construction style, building materials, burial methods, and even grave goods with tolas from northern Ecuador; however unlike northern Ecuador, this Colombian earthen mound was characterized by adobe brick construction. The aim of this paper is to contextualize El Morro de Tulcán within the northern Ecuadorian-southern Colombian region and to better understand the nature of this cultural isolate.
Cite this Record
Beyond the Cultural Pale?: Contextualizing El Morro de Tulcán within Regional Earthen Mound Development in the Northern Andes. Ryan Hechler, William Pratt, David Brown. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, Florida. 2016 ( tDAR id: 404685)
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Keywords
General
andes
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Colombia & Ecuador
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Earthen Mounds
Geographic Keywords
South America
Spatial Coverage
min long: -93.691; min lat: -56.945 ; max long: -31.113; max lat: 18.48 ;