 Location of the Chorrera culture | |
| Geographical range | Ecuador |
|---|---|
| Period | Formative |
| Dates | c. 1300 - 300 BCE |
| Preceded by | Machalilla |
| Followed by | Bahía, Tuncahuán |
The Chorrera culture or Chorrera tradition is a Late Formative indigenous culture that flourished between 1300 BCE and 300 BCE in Ecuador. [1] Chorrera culture was one of the most widespread cultures in pre-Columbian Ecuador, spanning the Pacific lowlands to the Andean highlands, [2] and even into southern Colombia. [1]
Due to variations in ceramics and other material culture, Chorrera culture is divided into regional variants. These include:
Other regions exhibit a strong Chorrera influence.
The hallmark of Chorrera culture is its ceramic traditions, which features whistling [3] animal and plant effigy Stirrup spout vessels and human figurines made from molds. Everyday utilitarian pottery was still very fine with thin decorated walls and red or black slips polished to a high sheen. Surfaces of bowls, bottles, ollas, and other ceramic pieces were incised, painted, pattern burnished, or decorated with rocker stamps. [2] Ceramics were used in personal adornments as well, examples being ceramic ear spools and rocker stamps used for body painting. [4]
Unusual decorative features of Chorrera ceramics include resist-painting and iridescent slips. [1]
Chorrera craftsmen produced some of the earliest metal objects in Ecuador. Numerous metal objects and fragments were excavated at the coastal site of Salango. Objects from copper, silver and gold were made, mostly elite goods like jewelry. [5]
Crops cultivated by Chorrera people include achira ( Canna indica ), arrowroot ( Maranta arundinacea ), corn ( Zea mays ), common beans ( Phaseolus vulgaris ), as well as gourds and squash ( Cucurbitaceae ). They also gathered wild tree fruits, sedge ( Cyperaceae ), and palm ( Palmae ). [6]
Chorrera people fished and hunted as well, catching game such as armadillo, deer (including white-tailed and brocket deer) duck, frogs, lizards, peccary, and various rodents. [6]
This culture continued the brisk trade network established by Valdivia and Machalilla cultures. Chorrera fisherman traded spiny oyster shells ( Spondylus ) and other marine shells with people from the Quito basin for obsidian. [6] Gold is traded in the latter centuries BCE. [1]
In 467 BCE, the Pululahua Volcano north of Quito erupted, sending volcanic ash over much of the western Ecuadorian lowland regions, which greatly reduced the expressions of Chorrera culture; however, some Chorrera settlements in the far north and south continued for several centuries. These evolved into more complex cultures of the Regional Developmental Period of 200 and 300 BCE. [7]
The History of Ecuador covers human habitation in the region reaching back 8,000 years.
Ecuador is a country in western South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean at the Equator, for which the country is named. Ecuador encompasses a wide range of natural formations and climates, from the desert-like southern coast to the snowcapped peaks of the Andes mountain range to the plains of the Amazon Basin. Cotopaxi in Ecuador is one of the world's highest active volcanos. It also has a large series of rivers that follow the southern border and spill into the northwest area of Peru.
The Valdivia culture is one of the oldest settled cultures recorded in the Americas. It emerged from the earlier Las Vegas culture and thrived along the coast of Santa Elena peninsula in Santa Elena Province of Ecuador between 3500 BCE and 1500 BCE.
Ceramics of Indigenous peoples of the Americas is an art form with at least a 7500-year history in the Americas. Pottery is fired ceramics with clay as a component. Ceramics are used for utilitarian cooking vessels, serving and storage vessels, pipes, funerary urns, censers, musical instruments, ceremonial items, masks, toys, sculptures, and a myriad of other art forms.
Esmeraldas is a coastal city in northwestern Ecuador. It is the seat of the Esmeraldas Canton and capital of the Esmeraldas Province. It has an international sea port and a small airport. Esmeraldas is the major seaport of northwestern Ecuador, and it lies on the Pacific coast at the mouth of the Esmeraldas River. It is the antipodes of Padang, Indonesia. The city is the principal trading hub for the region's agricultural and lumber resources, and is the terminus of the 313-mile (504-km) Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline from the oil fields in northeastern Ecuador.
The Saladoid culture is a pre-Columbian indigenous culture of territory in present-day Venezuela and the Caribbean that flourished from 500 BCE to 545 CE. The Saladoid were an Arawak people. Concentrated along the lowlands of the Orinoco River, the people migrated by sea to the Lesser Antilles, and then to Puerto Rico.
Tlatilco culture is a culture that flourished in the Valley of Mexico between the years 1250 BCE and 800 BCE, during the Mesoamerican Early Formative period. Tlatilco, Tlapacoya, and Coapexco are the major Tlatilco culture sites.
The Machalilla were a prehistoric people in Ecuador, in southern Manabí and the Santa Elena Peninsula. The dates when the culture thrived are uncertain, but are generally agreed to encompass 1500 BCE to 1100 BCE.
The Cotocollao culture were an indigenous Pre-Columbian culture that inhabited the valley that is now the Quito area, in Ecuador.
Indigenous peoples in Ecuador, or Native Ecuadorians, are the groups of people who were present in what became Ecuador before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The term also includes their descendants from the time of the Spanish conquest to the present. Their history, which encompasses the last 11,000 years, reaches into the present; 7 percent of Ecuador's population is of indigenous heritage, while another 70 percent are Mestizos of mixed indigenous and European heritage. Genetic analysis indicates that Ecuadorian Mestizos are of three-hybrid genetic ancestry.
Pre-Columbian Ecuador included numerous indigenous cultures, who thrived for thousands of years before the ascent of the Incan Empire. Las Vegas culture of coastal Ecuador, flourishing between 8000 and 4600 BC, is one of the oldest cultures in the Americas. The subsequent Valdivia culture in the Pacific coast region is another well-known early Ecuadorian culture. Ancient Valdivian artifacts from as early as 3500 BC have been found along the coast north of the Guayas Province in the modern city of Santa Elena.
Pululahua is a dormant volcano in the north of Quito Canton, Pichincha Province, Ecuador. The volcano is in the Western Cordillera of the northern Ecuadorian Andes, approximately west-southwest of Mojanda and north of Casitahua volcanoes. Pululahua's caldera is approximately 5 km wide.
Communidad Salango is a rural parish of Puerto López Canton, Manabí Province, Ecuador.
Kotosh is an archaeological site near the town of Huánuco, Peru, consisting of a series of buildings comprising six periods of continuous occupation.
Mississippian culture pottery is the ceramic tradition of the Mississippian culture found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. It is often characterized by the adoption and use of riverine shell-tempering agents in the clay paste. Shell tempering is one of the hallmarks of Mississippian cultural practices. Analysis of local differences in materials, techniques, forms, and designs is a primary means for archaeologists to learn about the lifeways, religious practices, trade, and interaction among Mississippian peoples. The value of this pottery on the illegal antiquities market has led to extensive looting of sites.
Nelson Estupiñán Bass (1912–2002) was an Ecuadorian writer. He was born in Súa, a city in the predominantly Afro-Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador. He was first homeschooled by his mother before traveling to the capital city of Quito where he graduated from Escuela Superior Juan Montalvo with a degree in public accounting in 1932. Bass identified with the Communist Party during this time and in 1934 had the opportunity to publish two of his poems in the socialist diary La Tierra.
The Tuncahuán phase culture flourished in the central highlands of Ecuador, and is believed to be traced back to 500 BCE to 500 CE.
Presley Norton Yoder was an Ecuadorian archeologist and entrepreneur.
Santa Ana (La Florida) is an important archaeological site in the highlands of Ecuador, going back as early as 3,500 BC. It is located in the Palanda Canton, just to the north of its regional capital of es:Palanda, in the Zamora-Chinchipe Province of Ecuador.
Real Alto is an archaeological site in Chanduy valley of Ecuador, located between the cities Guayaquil and Salinas. It was settled between 6000 and 3800 BC.
