Charred wood, photoliths, starch grains, and pollen tell the story of Early Tropical Forest Agriculture at Real Alto

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Reflections and Ripples of the Caiman: Papers in the Spirit of Don Lathrap" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Southwest coastal Ecuador was a hearth of innovation in the prehistoric New World. By 4400 BC life in SW Ecuador was transformed as sedentary village life, ceramic production, and agriculture came together in the Early Formative Valdivia culture. By middle Valdivia (3000-2400 BC), one village, Real Alto, was transformed into a town of 12 ha, one of the earliest in the New World. Its inhabitants grew maize, squash, gourd, ají, Canavalia beans, cotton, yuca, arrowroot, llerén, yam, and canna, and possibly other fruits and tuber-crops. But when excavations began at Real Alto 50 years ago, we knew little about how Valdivia people lived, what plants they grew, or even if they were primarily farmers. Donald Lathrap had the foresight to include these questions in planning the Real Alto research. In this presentation I review how paleoethnobotany—the investigation of plant-people interrelationships through study of archaeological plant remains—contributed toour understanding of how Valdivia people lived, what plants they grew, and how they successfully managed an agricultural system that included short season crops like maize, beans, and ajís, and crops like yuca, arrowroot, and llerén that required longer growing seasons.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Reflections and Ripples of the Caiman: Papers in the Spirit of Don Lathrap   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53782