Collaborative Research: Tropical Human Ecology, AgriculturalProduction and Prehistoric Settlement in the Jama River Drainage, Manabi Province, Ecuador

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With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Deborah Pearsall and James Zeidler will continue their collaborative archaeological research in the Jama drainage in northern Ecuador. Their work has focussed on the site of San Isidro, a large centrally located earthen mound, which probably functioned as a regional ceremonial and administrative center. The site's size and monumental architecture imply the existence of surplus production capable of supporting a dense population. Materials recovered to date suggest that San Isidro was a major point of external contact and commodity flow both along the coast of Ecuador and between the coast and the highlands. In the course of their work, Drs. Zeidler and Pearsall have surveyed the surrounding region to locate smaller sites and related agricultural features. The goal of this aspect of the research is to set San Isidro into a broader regional context. The current NSF award will permit the team to conduct a pedestrian survey of a last survey area and to finish analyses of survey data and associated artifacts. These final steps will permit the analysis of both regional settlement patterns, allowing investigation of temporal shifts in site location, size and function, and of patterns of settlement growth and social transformation over time. The research is important because it will give new insight into the process of demographic growth as well as change in subsistence and the accompanying development of cultural complexity which took place in this tropical area of northern Ecuador. Although such complex societies arose in the tropics many times in different parts of the world, the underlying processes are not well understood. Ecuador is known to be rich in prehistoric remains, but little archaeological research has been conducted there. This project will help to remedy that situation.