Volcanic tephras and the pre-Columbian occupations at the Laguna de la Ciudad region of Northern Esmeraldas,

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Celebrating the Contributions of Volcanologists Minard Hall and Patricia Mothes to Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The coast of the province of Esmeraldas is dominated by a mangrove/humid tropical forest ecosystem, which is apparently not conducive to large population concentrations. However, the northern area was once the focus of a complex social formation now called La Tolita. Human adaptation to tropical environments with wetlands is reflected in the organization/use of space and the development of productive systems with specialized techniques. One of these systems, raised fields agriculture, or camellones, has been evidenced in an area known as Laguna de la Ciudad. Located at the tip of the Santiago River delta, the region was occupied since the first millennium before the Common Era. The presentation describes the archaeological evidence related to the pre-Columbian occupations in the region, their evolution and eventually their disappearance in the XIII century after the ash deposits from the Quilotoa eruption, hindered the agricultural practices. The general theme is the settlement of the region, the use of space and the socioeconomic development of the region, in spite of several volcanic ash deposits that have been registered in the stratigraphic cuts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Celebrating the Contributions of Volcanologists Minard Hall and Patricia Mothes to Ecuadorian Archaeology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51724