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Valdivia culture
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Valdivia culture
The Valdivia culture is one of the oldest settled cultures recorded in the Americas. It appeared one thousand years after the Las Vegas culture and thrived along the coast of Santa Elena peninsula in Santa Elena Province of Ecuador between 3500 BC and 1500 BC.
Remains of the Valdivia culture were discovered in 1956 on the western coast of Ecuador by the Ecuadorian archeologist Emilio Estrada, who continued to study this culture. American archeologists Clifford Evans (1920-1981) and Betty Meggers joined him in the early 1960s in studying the type-site.
The original excavations were in a small village of Valdivia that is located well north of Santa Elena peninsula. The Valdivia site is located about 10km south of the beach resort of Montañita.
The Valdivia lived in a communities that built houses in a circular or oval pattern around a central plaza. They are believed to have been organized in a relatively egalitarian culture of sedentary people who lived mostly from fishing, although they did some farming and occasionally hunted for deer to supplement their diet.
From the archeological remains that have been found, it has been determined that Valdivians cultivated maize, kidney beans, squash, cassava, chili peppers, and cotton plants. The cotton crop was processed, spun, and woven to make clothing.
Initially rough and practical, Valdivian pottery is dated to 2700 BCE, but it became splendid, delicate, and large over time. The pottery generally was made with red and gray pigments and the polished dark red pottery is characteristic of the Valdivia period. In their ceramics and stone works, the Valdivia culture shows a progression from the most simple to much more complicated works.
The trademark example of the pottery created in the culture is the "Venus" of Valdivia: a ceramic figure of a woman. The figures were made by joining two rolls of clay, leaving the lower portion separated as legs, and making the body and head from the top portion. The arms were usually very short and displayed in a compact fashion in most cases, bent toward the chest under the breasts or under the chin. Each figurine is individual and unique, as expressed in the hairstyles. The variable characteristics suggest a possibility that some of the figures found may have represented specific individuals.
A display of Valdivian artifacts is located at Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
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Valdivia culture
The Valdivia culture is one of the oldest settled cultures recorded in the Americas. It appeared one thousand years after the Las Vegas culture and thrived along the coast of Santa Elena peninsula in Santa Elena Province of Ecuador between 3500 BC and 1500 BC.
Remains of the Valdivia culture were discovered in 1956 on the western coast of Ecuador by the Ecuadorian archeologist Emilio Estrada, who continued to study this culture. American archeologists Clifford Evans (1920-1981) and Betty Meggers joined him in the early 1960s in studying the type-site.
The original excavations were in a small village of Valdivia that is located well north of Santa Elena peninsula. The Valdivia site is located about 10km south of the beach resort of Montañita.
The Valdivia lived in a communities that built houses in a circular or oval pattern around a central plaza. They are believed to have been organized in a relatively egalitarian culture of sedentary people who lived mostly from fishing, although they did some farming and occasionally hunted for deer to supplement their diet.
From the archeological remains that have been found, it has been determined that Valdivians cultivated maize, kidney beans, squash, cassava, chili peppers, and cotton plants. The cotton crop was processed, spun, and woven to make clothing.
Initially rough and practical, Valdivian pottery is dated to 2700 BCE, but it became splendid, delicate, and large over time. The pottery generally was made with red and gray pigments and the polished dark red pottery is characteristic of the Valdivia period. In their ceramics and stone works, the Valdivia culture shows a progression from the most simple to much more complicated works.
The trademark example of the pottery created in the culture is the "Venus" of Valdivia: a ceramic figure of a woman. The figures were made by joining two rolls of clay, leaving the lower portion separated as legs, and making the body and head from the top portion. The arms were usually very short and displayed in a compact fashion in most cases, bent toward the chest under the breasts or under the chin. Each figurine is individual and unique, as expressed in the hairstyles. The variable characteristics suggest a possibility that some of the figures found may have represented specific individuals.
A display of Valdivian artifacts is located at Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
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