A History of The Manteño of Bola De Oro: Understanding Manteño Adaptation to a Changing Climate through Age-Depth Modeling and Charcoal Abundance Analysis of Agricultural Landscape Modifications

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A modified agricultural landscape of cultivation terraces and water retention ponds in the high elevations of the Chongón-Colonche Mountains of southern Manabí indicates a shift in agricultural practices by the Manteño civilization of coastal Ecuador (ca. 650–1700 CE). This shift must be understood through time as a societal response to a changing climate from the phases of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) during the late Holocene. We use the abundance of charcoal within soils and sediments (excavated from three Manteño agricultural landscape modifications in the western slopes of the Bola de Oro Mountain that were identified through UAV-LiDAR and recognized in the field) as a proxy for the use of fire as a vegetation clearing strategy and, therefore, drier conditions at these elevations. Calibrated radiocarbon dates and age-depth modeling allowed for the identification of the earliest Manteño occupation in the mountain, the massive implementation of stone architecture and landscape modifications, the final abandonment of the region, and the eventual return of decedent communities. Manteño's success in a constantly changing climate can be attributed to their investment in transforming the most resilient environment in the territory, the cloud forest, due to the prolonged droughts and extreme floods from shifts in ENSO into a human landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39543.0