From the Ashes: Volcanic Construction Materials in Pre-Columbian Ecuador

Summary

In many ways, volcanic eruptions define the pre-Columbian history of highland Ecuador: the shaping of the landscape, migration patterns, mythology, and ideology. Ecuador is one of the most volcanically active countries on earth, and it’s impossible to examine the archaeology without considering both the direct and indirect impacts of volcanic eruptions. Through millennia, the imposing presence of the volcanos on the northern Ecuadorian landscape inspired fear and veneration, with the ever-present threat of disaster the price of life-giving sources of water. With a paucity of other hard stone, volcanic materials found in the region, ranging from fine powdery ignimbritic ash from Quilotoa volcano to dense cangahua, a consolidated volcanic ash, have been utilized for a variety of purposes in pre-Columbian cultures all over northern highland Ecuador. This paper examines some of the functional and ritual uses of volcanic materials at pre-Columbian sites from different periods across the northern highlands in order to better understand how ancient people conceptualized these destructive but life-giving forces of nature.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22197