Formative Settlement Patterns in the Valdivia Valley, SW Coastal Ecuador

Bibliographic Data

ID8090425
AuthorsFrederick A O Schwarz (corresponding author), Frederick A Schwarz, J Scott Raymond
Year1996
Volume23
Issue2
Pages205-224
Publication date1996-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Field Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0093-4690 • E-ISSN: 2042-4582
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/009346996791973891
OpenAlexW2055716220
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited21

The prevailing view of the Formative in Ecuador is of a period characterized by precocious development and transformation. Initially, the Early Formative (Valdivia) period is marked by a very early appearance of ceramics associated with large U-shaped or circular villages reminiscent of Tropical Forest Culture in the Amazon Basin. Subsequently, through the Valdivia period, these villages assumed an increasingly ceremonial function, while much of the population was dispersed among small settlements scattered along the river valleys. The Early Formative thus apparently witnessed a transformation in settlement, from nucleated villages to a dispersed peasantry surrounding ceremonial centers, and this is characterized as a perhaps seminal, first step in the evolution of the great ceremonial centers of Nuclear America. While the outcome of this evolutionary process in Mesoamerica and the central Andes is well known, it seems to have had little impact in Ecuador: at the end of the Valdivia period, ceremonial activity at the old village sites appears to have ceased, while population seemingly remained dispersed

Amazon rainforest · Archaeology · Formative assessment · Geography · Human settlement · Mesoamerica · Period (music · Population · Settlement (finance · Structural basin · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Ecology · Geology · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Paleontology

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