Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador - Paleo-Indians

Paleo-Indians

The oldest artifacts discovered in Ecuador are stone implements discovered at 32 "pre-ceramic" (Paleolithic) archaeological sites in the Santa Elena Peninsula. They indicate a hunting and gathering economy, and date from the Late Pleistocene epoch, or about 11,000 years ago. These Paleo-Indians subsisted on the megafauna that inhabited the Americas at the time, which they hunted and processed with stone tools of their own manufacture.

Evidence of Paleoindian hunter-gatherer material culture in other parts of coastal Ecuador is isolated and scattered. Such artifacts have been found in the provinces of Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Azuay, and Loja.

Despite the existence of these early coastal settlements, the majority of human settlement occurred in the Sierra (Andean) region, which was quickly populated. One such settlement, remains of which were found at the archaeological site El Inga, was centered at the eastern base of Mount Ilaló, where two basalt flows are located. Due to agricultural disturbances of archaeological remains, it has been difficult to establish a consistent timeline for this site. The oldest artifacts there discovered, however, date to 9,750 BP.

In the South, archaeological discoveries include stone artifacts and animal remains found in the Cave of Chobshi, located in the cantón of Sigsig, which date between 10,010 and 7,535 BP. Chobshi also provides evidence of the domestication of the dog. Another site, Cubilán, rests on the border between Azuay and Loja provinces. Scrapers, projectile points, and awls discovered there date between 9,060 and 9,100 BP, while vegetable remains are up to a thousand years older.

In the Oriente, human settlements have existed since at least 2450 BP. Settlements that probably date from this period have been found in the provinces of Napo, Pastaza, Sucumbíos, and Orellana. However, most of the evidence recovered in the Oriente suggest a date of settlement later than in the Sierra or the Coast.