Las Vegas

1
Las Vegas

• first appears ca. 8000 BC
• terminal date suggested as 4650 BC

2
San Pedro

• dates to ca. 3200-2500 BC
• weakened idea about Japanese imports

3
Valdivia Culture

• What?
• Earliest pottery in western South America
• Earliest art styles and ceremonialism
• Earliest sedentary villages in coastal Ecuador
• Where?
• Coastal valleys of southern Ecuador from Manabí
  to Guayaquil
• When?
• Dates from ca. 3500 - 1800 BC
• How Do We Know?
• Surveys and surface collections
• Excavations at Valdivia, Loma Alta, Real Alto,
  Salango, other sites
• Figurines and ceramics from looted cemeteries

4
Loma Alta

• located in Valdivia Valley, 10 km inland
• earliest acceptable date of 3325 BC
• associated with Valdivia I household cluster
• Valdivia I probably lasted from 3300-2800 BC
• earliest pottery, different from that found in
  Colombia
• thick-walled pots with everted necks
• plain bowls and necked jars
• "pie-crust" rims
• introduction of fine-line incised in Valdivia 2
• stylized figurines
• remains of simple houses

5
Valdivia Subsistence

• Seafood the dominant component in diet
• limited emphasis on shellfishing
• collection of Anadara tuberculosa in mangroves
• Evidence from La Plata Island
• clear travel to islands 30 km offshore
• suggest exchange of fish along the coast
• intensive procurement of Spondylus shells
• stored in quantity at some locations
• Possible use of pot irrigation for cultivation

6
Maize Cultivation

• May have appeared as early as 3200 BC
• Direct Evidencefor Maize
• corn kernel impressions in pottery (San Pablo)
• phytoliths in Valdivia 3 at Real Alto (ca. 2300)
• charred kernels from Valdivia 7-8 at San Isidro
• Indirect Evidence for Maize
• maize phytoliths in earlier Las Vegas culture
  contexts
• large numbers of manos and metates
• skeletons with extreme tooth wear
• production of lime from terrestrial gastropods

7
Other Valdivia Period Crops

• jack beans, achira, soursop
• macrobotanical remains in area where wild species
  are found
• cotton also suggested by presence of spindle
  whorls
• may have been domesticated in the region

8
Real Alto

• important site in Chanduy Valley
• excavated by Donald Lathrap
• remains of houses
• small, basketlike structures measuring 1.5 X 2.5
  m
• later houses were dome-like structures
• subsistence remains
• crabs, lobsters, scallops, sea turtles

9
Real Alto

• expanded during period from 3000-2000 BC
• becomes significant population center
• 50 houses projected for around 2800 BC
• structures had massive frames of hardwood posts
• housed groups of as many as 30 individuals
• permanent villages of as many as 500 suggested by
  2300 BC

10
Architecture at Real Alto

• evidence for early structures with ceremonial
  functions
• appears to have been oval or U-shaped in plan
• site plan is a central plaza surrounded by large
  dwellings

11
Fiesta House

• fragments of broken cups
• exotic foodstuffs
• may represent the remains of chicha-drinking feast

12
Charnel House

• dismembered body of a young male near the
  entrance
• bones neatly stacked in a pile
• seven chert knives around the body
• inside doorway were jumbled bones of seven more
  males

13
Settlement Organization

• hierarchical ranking of sites in the Chanduy
  valley
• correspondence seen with modern Ge villages in
  Brazil
• larger towns were surrounded in turn by rural
  hamlets
• possible development of regional chiefdoms
• local leaders mediated "prestige cycles"

14
Symbolism

• females represented in figurines
• jaguar motifs on pottery
• possible Tropical Forest Culture origins
• Amazonian patterns identified by Donald Lathrap
• Still at the level of speculation