Pre-Columbian Ecuador
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 Santa Elena Province.
Several other cultures, including the Cotocollaos, Quitus, Caras, Paltas and Cañaris, emerged in other parts of Ecuador. There are other major archaeological sites in the coastal provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas and in the middle Andean highland provinces of Tungurahua and Chimborazo. The archaeological evidence has established that Ecuador was inhabited for at least 4,500 years before the rise of the Inca.
Great tracts of Ecuador, including almost all of the Oriente, remain unknown to archaeologists, a fact that adds credence to the possibility of early human habitation. Scholars have studied the Amazon region recently but the forest is so remote and dense that it takes years for research teams to survey even a small area. Their belief that the river basin had complex cultures is confirmed by the recent discovery of the Mayo-Chinchipe Cultural Complex in the Zamora-Chinchipe Province.
The present Republic of Ecuador is at the heart of the region where a variety of civilizations developed for millennia. During the pre-Inca period people lived in clans, which formed great tribes, and some allied with each other to form powerful confederations, as the Confederation of Quito. But none of these confederations could resist the formidable momentum of the Tawantinsuyu. The invasion of the Inca in the 15th century was very painful and bloody. However, once occupied by the Quito hosts of Huayna Capac, the Incas developed an extensive administration and began the colonization of the region.
The pre-Columbian era can be divided up into four eras:
- Preceramic Period;
- Formative Period;
- Period of Regional Development; and
- Period of Integration and the Arrival of the Incas.
Preceramic period
Las Vegas culture
The Las Vegas is the first known culture in Ecuador. They lived on the Santa Elena Peninsula on the coast of Ecuador between 9000 and 6000 BC. The skeletal remains and other finds show evidence the culture once flourished in the area. Scientists have classified three phases of cultural development. The earliest people were hunter-gatherers and fishermen. At approximately 6000 BC, the culture was among the first to begin farming The best known remains of the culture are The Lovers of Sumpa. These human remains and other items can be seen at Museo Los Amantes de Sumpa y Centro Cultural in Santa Elena.Image:Figura masculina cultura Bahía 01.jpg|right|thumb|Ceramic male figure representing a richly bejeweled nobleman, from Ecuador. Bahía Culture artwork |upright
El Inga
The Inga lived in the Sierra near present-day Quito. Evidence from the archeological site El Inca date the culture to 9000–8000 BCE. Several sites were excavated around 1961. It is estimated this area is one of the most important in South America and existed along an ancient trade route. The tools used by these early nomadic hunters have provided relationships to the Clovis culture level I at Fell's Cave in southern Chile, and technological relationships to the late Pleistocene "fluted point" complexes of North America.Formative Period
During the Formative Period, people of the region moved from hunting-gathering and simple farming into a more developed society, with permanent developments, an increase in agriculture and the use of ceramics. New cultures included the Machalilla culture, Valdivia, Chorrera culture on the coast; Cotocollao, and The Chimba in the Sierra; and Mayo Chinchipe, Pastaza, Chiguaza and many others in the Oriente region. The Cerro Narrío or Chaullabamba culture thrived from 2000 BC to AD 600 in the southern Cañar and Azuay provinces.Santa Ana is an important archaeological site in the highlands of Ecuador, going back as early as 3,500 BC. It is located in the Zamora-Chinchipe Province, and was discovered in 21st century. It belongs to the proposed Mayo Chinchipe-Marañón culture.
Valdivia Culture
The Valdivia culture is the first culture where significant remains have been discovered. Their civilization dates back as early as 3500 BC. Living in the area near The Valdivias were the first Americans to use pottery. They created bowls, jars and female statues out of clay, both for everyday life and for use in religious ceremonies. They navigated the seas on rafts with sails and established a trade network with tribes in the Andes and the Amazon. Valdivia art and artifacts have been found throughout the country. An extensive collection is on display at the National Museum of Ecuador in Quito and the UEES in Guayaquil.Machalilla Culture
Succeeding the Valdivia, the Machalilla Culture was a farming culture that throve along the coast of Ecuador between the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE. Its ceramics are easily differentiated from the Valdivia as they were painted black or white with red stripes, and figurines were rare and crudely made. These appear to be the earliest people to cultivate maize in this part of South America.Chorrera Culture
Existing in the late Formative period, the Chorrera culture lived in the Andes and Coastal Regions of Ecuador between 900 and 300 BC. They were best known for their hollow ceramic animal- and plant-shaped figurines.Period of Regional Development
The period of Regional Development is when regional differences developed in the territorial or political and social organization of the peoples. Among the main towns of this period were the cultures: Jambelí, Guangala, Bahía, Tejar-Daule, La Tolita, Jama Coaque in the coast of Ecuador, in the Sierras the Cerro Narrío Alausí; and in the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle the Tayos.La Bahía
The figurine of the Bahía culture, La Chimba is the site of the earliest ceramic northern Andes, north of Quito, and is representative of the Formative Period in its final stage. Its inhabitants contacted several villages on the coast and the mountains, keeping close proximity to the Cotocollao, located on the plateau of Quito and its surrounding valleys. The Bahia culture occupied the area that stretches from the foothills of the Andes to the Pacific Ocean, and from Bahía de Caráquez, to the south of Manabi. The Jama-Coaque culture inhabited areas between Cabo San Francisco in Esmeraldas, to Bahía de Caráquez, in Manabi, in an area of wooded hills and vast beaches of their immigrant who facilitated the gathering of resources of both the jungle and the ocean.Tuncahuán
The Tuncahuán phase culture flourished in the central highlands of Ecuador and is believed to be traced back to 500 BCE to 500 CE. There has been very little archaeological research in this region of Ecuador and we still have much to learn from its prehistory. The first to describe Tuncahuán phase was the Ecuadorian archaeologist Jacinto Caamano Jijón and early twentieth century, based on its investigation five graves in a cemetery.La Tolita Culture
The La Tolita developed in the coastal region of Southern Colombia and Northern Ecuador between 600 BCE and CE 200. Numerous archaeological sites have been discovered that show the highly artistic nature of this culture. Artifacts are characterized by gold jewelry, beautiful anthropomorphic masks and figurines that reflect a hierarchical society with complex ceremonies.Upano River valley
A cluster of cities emerged in eastern Ecuador's Upano River valley between 500 BC and 600 AD. Though the culture of these cities' inhabitants is not yet well understood, it is thought that tens of thousands of people resided in the region at its height.Guangala
The Guangala culture thrived from AD 100 to 800 in the Manabí Province.Period of Integration and the arrival of the Inca
Tribes throughout Ecuador integrated during this period. They built better housing that allowed them to improve their living conditions and no longer be subject to the climate. In the mountains the Cosangua-Píllaro, Capulí and Piartal-Tuza cultures arose; in the eastern region was the Yasuní Phase, while the Milagro, Manteña and Huancavilca cultures developed on the coast, from 500 BC onwards.Los Manteños
The Manteños were the last of the pre-Columbian cultures in the coastal region and flourished between 600 and 1534. They were the first to witness the arrival of Spanish ships sailing in the surrounding Pacific Ocean. According to archaeological evidence and Spanish chronicles, the civilization extended from Bahía de Caráquez to Cerro de Hojas in the south. They were excellent weavers, produced textiles, articles of gold, silver spondylus shells and mother of pearls. The manteños mastered the seas and forged extensive trade routes as far as present-day Chile to the south and western Mexico to the north. The center of the culture was in the area of Manta, named in their honor.Los Huancavilcas
The Huancavilcas constitute the most important pre-Columbian culture of Guayas, after Las Vegas. These warriors were noted for their appearance. Huancavilca culture recounts the legend of Guayas and Quiles, for which the city of Guayaquil was named.The Incas
The Inca expansion northward from modern-day Peru during the late 15th century met with fierce resistance by several Ecuadorian tribes, particularly the Cañari, in the region around modern-day Cuenca, who fought along with the Quitu, occupants of the site of the modern capital; the Cara in the Sierra north of Quito. The conquest of Ecuador began in 1463 under the leadership of the ninth Inca, the great warrior Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui. In that year, his son Tupac took over command of the army and began his march northward through the Sierra.By 1500 Tupac's son, Huayna Capac, overcame the resistance of these populations and that of the Cara, and thus incorporated most of modern-day Ecuador into Tawantinsuyu, as the Inca empire was known. Different tribes also sought refugee in the then thick interior jungles. The influence of these conquerors based in Cuzco was limited to about a half century, or less in some parts of Ecuador. During that period, some aspects of life remained unchanged. Traditional religious beliefs, for example, persisted throughout the period of Inca rule. In other areas, however, such as agriculture, land tenure, and social organization, Inca rule had a profound effect despite its relatively short duration.
Emperor Huayna Capac became very fond of Quito, making it a secondary capital of Tawantinsuyu and living out his elder years there before his death in about 1527. Huayna Capac's sudden death from a strange disease, described by one as smallpox, precipitated a bitter power struggle between Huascar, whose mother was Coya Mama Rahua Occillo and legitimate heir, and Atahualpa, a son who was born to a Quitu princess, and reputedly his father's "favorite".
This struggle raged during the half-decade before the arrival of Francisco Pizarro's conquering expedition in 1532. The key battle of this civil war was fought on Ecuadorian soil, near Riobamba, where Huascar's northbound troops were met and defeated by Atahualpa's southbound troops. Atahualpa's final victory over Huascar in the days just before the Spanish conquerors arrived resulted in large part from the loyalty of two of Huayna Capac's best generals, who were based in Quito along with Atahualpa. The victory remains a source of national pride to Ecuadorians as a rare case when "Ecuador" forcefully bettered a "neighboring country".