El Torno del Cielo: A New Spin on Regional Interactions from the Río Grande de Chone, Manabí

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Cuando los senderos divergen: Reconsiderando las interacciones entre los Andes Septentrionales y los Andes Centrales durante el 1ro y 2do milenio AEC / When Paths Diverge: Reconsidering Interactions between the Northern and Central Andes, First–Second Millennium BCE" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Precolumbian societies of the Ecuadorian coast have long attracted the interest of archaeologists studying regional interactions, since the evocative Sámano-Xerez (1844 [1528]) chronicle of encounters between Spanish conquistadors and Manteño trading vessels. The deep histories of these regional social interactions remain avid topics of research (Beekman and McEwan 2022). Contributing to these and other discussions, the Proyecto Arqueológico Río Grande de Chone has worked in the largest tributary of the Río Chone, positioned in the heart of Manabí’s coastal cordillera. Excavations at the sites of La Ñarusa and Platanales and regional survey demonstrate the Río Grande was occupied since at least the mid-third millennium BC. Settlements of the Late Valdivia and Chorrera cultural traditions provide new information regarding local and regional connections these communities maintained. Changes in ceramic production and highland sources utilized for obsidian demonstrate far-flung material exchange and vibrant sociopolitical relationships. Additionally, the PARGC’s encounter with a small second-millennium BC shrine provides a prescient example of early religious architecture. With elements recalling the spiral architecture of their Amazonian contemporaries and the stepped platforms of their coastal Peruvian neighbors, this shrine’s construction by past residents of Platanales suggests their spiritual and social universe extended far beyond the cordillera costanera.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Cuando los senderos divergen: Reconsiderando las interacciones entre los Andes Septentrionales y los Andes Centrales durante el 1ro y 2do milenio AEC / When Paths Diverge: Reconsidering Interactions between the Northern and Central Andes, First–Second Millennium BCE   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37970.0