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128-730: The Tumaco-La Tolita culture or Tulato culture , also known as the Tumaco Culture in Colombia or as the Tolita Culture in Ecuador was an archaeological culture that inhabited the northern coast of Ecuador and the southern coast of Colombia during the Pre-Columbian era . It takes its name from the two most representative archaeological sites of the culture, the Isla del Morro in the city of Tumaco and

256-409: A "culture". We assume that such a complex is the material expression of what today we would call "a people". The concept of an archaeological culture was crucial to linking the typological analysis of archaeological evidence to mechanisms that attempted to explain why they change through time. The key explanations favoured by culture-historians were the diffusion of forms from one group to another or

384-672: A cave in Oaxaca. Earlier maize samples have been documented at the Los Ladrones cave site in Panama , c. 5500 BCE. Slightly thereafter, semi- agrarian communities began to cultivate other crops throughout Mesoamerica. Maize was the most common domesticate, but the common bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean, jicama , tomato and squash all became common cultivates by 3500 BCE. At the same time, these communities exploited cotton , yucca , and agave for fibers and textile materials. By 2000 BCE, corn

512-402: A complex combination of ecological systems, topographic zones, and environmental contexts. These different niches are classified into two broad categories: the lowlands (those areas between sea level and 1000 meters) and the altiplanos , or highlands (situated between 1,000 and 2,000 meters above sea level). In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as

640-572: A convergence of geographic and cultural attributes. These sub-regions are more conceptual than culturally meaningful, and the demarcation of their limits is not rigid. The Maya area, for example, can be divided into two general groups: the lowlands and highlands. The lowlands are further divided into the southern and northern Maya lowlands. The southern Maya lowlands are generally regarded as encompassing northern Guatemala , southern Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico, and Belize . The northern lowlands cover

768-465: A culture, rather a combination of traits are required. This view culture gives life to the artifacts themselves. "Once 'cultures' are regarded as things, it is possible to attribute behavior to them, and to talk about them as if they were living organisms." Archaeological cultures were equated separate 'peoples' (ethnic groups or races ) leading in some cases to distinct nationalist archaeologies. Most archaeological cultures are named after either

896-466: A distinction between material cultures that actually belonged to a single cultural group. It has been highlighted, for example, that village-dwelling and nomadic Bedouin Arabs have radically different material cultures even if in other respects, they are very similar. In the past, such synchronous findings were often interpreted as representing intrusion by other groups. The concept of archaeological cultures

1024-453: A feline-anthropomorphic deity. She also spoke of the possibility of making Tzantzas (shrunken heads). The evidences that could indicate the existence of these practices come mainly from the Tolita art, since there are a large number of figures of human heads made of clay without a body, as well as a type of very peculiar figurines known as "decapitators" which hold a human head. She also identified

1152-570: A few burials. A great variety of burial practices existed in this culture. Bodies have been found buried in a variety of positions, there are tombs dug directly above the ground, but there are also tombs inside the Tolas ( mounds ), both Primary burials (when the body decomposes at the burial place) and secondary burials (when the soft parts of the body decompos before the final burial of the bones), in individual or collective tombs, with very rich offerings or without any offerings. A common type of burial are

1280-461: A great variety of animals; fish, mammals, reptiles, birds, etc. And the hybrid figurines represent the mixture between animals and humans, one of the most common representations is the man–jaguar hybrid. Some figures, with both typically masculine and feminine features could be interpreted as potentially non-binary or transgender , similar figures are also found in the Bahía and Jama Coaque cultures. Stone

1408-601: A growing interest in ethnicity in 19th-century Europe. The first use of "culture" in an archaeological context was in Christian Thomsen 's 1836 work Ledetraad til Nordisk Oldkyndighed ( Norwegian : Guide to Northern Antiquity ). In the later half of the 19th century archaeologists in Scandinavia and central Europe increasingly made use of the German concept of culture to describe the different groups they distinguished in

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1536-486: A la distribución de crucifijos y representaciones de la crucifixión en la iconografía cristiana, lo cual no implica que en todas las áreas culturales donde este objeto está presente se lleven a cabo crucifixiones). ... Las escenas de decapitación y obtención de cabezas trofeo son frecuentes en el área andina, sobre todo en culturas peruanas – Cerro Sechín, Cupisnique, Paracas, Nasca, Moche]; menos implícitamente en Chavín –, y su presencia en la iconografía Tolita podría responder

1664-685: A large number of tombs of this culture in search of precious metal objects that would later be melted and turned into ingots . Among the main buyers of gold from the region were the Bank of the Republic in Colombia and the Central Bank of Ecuador , which sought to increase their gold reserves . It was these same banks that were in charge of creating the Gold Museum and the Central Bank Museum (today known as

1792-539: A larger area in the Americas, but it has also previously been used more narrowly to refer to Mesoamerica. An example is the title of the 16 volumes of The Handbook of Middle American Indians . "Mesoamerica" is broadly defined as the area that is home to the Mesoamerican civilization, which comprises a group of peoples with close cultural and historical ties. The exact geographic extent of Mesoamerica has varied through time, as

1920-456: A new group migrating in with this new style. This idea of culture is known as normative culture . It relies on the assumption found in the view of archaeological culture that artifacts found are "an expression of cultural norms," and that these norms define culture. This view is also required to be polythetic , multiple artifacts must be found for a site to be classified under a specific archaeological culture. One trait alone does not result in

2048-703: A period commonly known as the Tikal Hiatus . The Late Classic period (beginning c. 600 CE until 909 CE) is characterized as a period of interregional competition and factionalization among the numerous regional polities in the Maya area. This largely resulted from the decrease in Tikal's socio-political and economic power at the beginning of the period. It was therefore during this time that other sites rose to regional prominence and were able to exert greater interregional influence, including Caracol, Copán , Palenque , and Calakmul (which

2176-823: A portion of the Sierra Madre chain is known as the Eje Volcánico Transversal , or the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt. There are 83 inactive and active volcanoes within the Sierra Madre range, including 11 in Mexico, 37 in Guatemala, 23 in El Salvador, 25 in Nicaragua, and 3 in northwestern Costa Rica. According to the Michigan Technological University, 16 of these are still active. The tallest active volcano

2304-478: A process of spiritual transformation inspired by the consumption of hallucinogenic plants. But this way of understanding the Tolita art has been questioned by current scholars, who believe that Tolita iconography truly represents the opposite of everyday life:deities, mythological ancestors , supernatural characters, and legendary heroes. Tumaco-La Tolita art represents a large number of animals, both natural and supernatural. Among them, there are 3 that stand out:

2432-510: A rag-tag assemblage of ideas." Archaeological culture is presently useful for sorting and assembling artifacts, especially in European archaeology that often falls towards culture-historical archaeology. Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising

2560-740: A regionally important center during the Postclassic. The latter portion of the Postclassic is generally associated with the rise of the Mexica and the Aztec Empire . One of the more commonly known cultural groups in Mesoamerica, the Aztec politically dominated nearly all of central Mexico, the Gulf Coast, Mexico's southern Pacific Coast (Chiapas and into Guatemala), Oaxaca, and Guerrero . The Tarascans (also known as

2688-481: A skull that could have been ritually decapitated since it has two perforations that were made after the death, like the aforementioned ceramic heads. But archaeologist María Fernanda Ugalde argued that there is not enough evidence to confirm this hypothesis, since, despite the fact that human skulls have been found separated from the body in Tumaco-La Tolita cemeteries, this phenomenon could be easily explained by

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2816-501: A specific designation for prehistoric cultures. Critics argue that cultural taxonomies lack a strong consensus on the epistemological aims of cultural taxonomy, The use of the term " culture " entered archaeology through 19th-century German ethnography , where the Kultur of tribal groups and rural peasants was distinguished from the Zivilisation of urbanised peoples. In contrast to

2944-480: A technological departure from previous construction techniques. Major Puuc sites include Uxmal , Sayil , Labna , Kabah , and Oxkintok . While generally concentrated within the area in and around the Puuc hills , the style has been documented as far away as at Chichen Itza to the east and Edzna to the south. Chichén Itzá was originally thought to have been a Postclassic site in the northern Maya lowlands. Research over

3072-453: A una difusión de parte de este bagaje religioso-mitológico. We believe that the ritual beheading in the Tolita culture, rather than a real practice, could belong to the mythological realm (in a similar way to the distribution of crucifixes and representations of the crucifixion in Christian iconography , which does not imply that crucifixions takes place in all cultural areas where this object

3200-429: A very fertile layer of humus , which can be collected and putted on top of the camellones, this helps to maintain both the depth of the channels and the fertility of the soil. Causeway were built using this same technique, probably with the aim of improving mobility between cultivation areas during floods. Although the intensive use of this irrigation systems began during the Tolita period, they were first used during

3328-652: A warm climate, with temperatures of 27 or 28 °C. The landscape of the region is dominated by large and fertile plains covered by tropical rainforest , while the coastal zone is covered by mangrove forests . Riversare abundant in the area, such as the Cayapas River , the Mataje River , the Mira River , the Patía River , etc. The large number of rivers provided Tumaco-La Tolita people with excellent communication routes with

3456-605: Is Popocatépetl at 5,452 m (17,887 ft). This volcano, which retains its Nahuatl name, is located 70 km (43 mi) southeast of Mexico City. Other volcanoes of note include Tacana on the Mexico–Guatemala border, Tajumulco and Santamaría in Guatemala, Izalco in El Salvador, Arenal in Costa Rica, and Concepción and Maderas on Ometepe , which is an island formed by both volcanoes rising out of Lake Cocibolca in Nicaragua. One important topographic feature

3584-403: Is a classifying device to order archaeological data, focused on artifacts as an expression of culture rather than people. The classic definition of this idea comes from Gordon Childe : We find certain types of remains – pots, implements, ornaments, burial rites and house forms – constantly recurring together. Such a complex of associated traits we shall call a "cultural group" or just

3712-475: Is a list of some of the specialized resources traded from the various Mesoamerican sub-regions and environmental contexts: Mesoamerican architecture is the collective name given to urban, ceremonial and public structures built by pre-Columbian civilizations in Mesoamerica. Although very different in styles, all kinds of Mesoamerican architecture show some kind of interrelation, due to very significant cultural exchanges that occurred during thousands of years. Among

3840-619: Is another Classic-period polity that expanded and flourished during this period, but the Zapotec capital exerted less interregional influence than the other two sites. During the Early Classic, Teotihuacan participated in and perhaps dominated a far-reaching macro-regional interaction network. Architectural and artifact styles (talud-tablero, tripod slab-footed ceramic vessels) epitomized at Teotihuacan were mimicked and adopted at many distant settlements. Pachuca obsidian, whose trade and distribution

3968-453: Is argued to have been economically controlled by Teotihuacan, is found throughout Mesoamerica. Tikal came to dominate much of the southern Maya lowlands politically, economically, and militarily during the Early Classic. An exchange network centered at Tikal distributed a variety of goods and commodities throughout southeast Mesoamerica, such as obsidian imported from central Mexico (e.g., Pachuca) and highland Guatemala (e.g., El Chayal , which

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4096-423: Is itself a divisive subject within the archaeological field. When first developed, archaeologic culture was viewed as a reflection of actual human culture. ...in the traditional view we translate present into past by collecting artifacts into groups, and naming those groups as archaeological cultures. We then make the equation between an archaeological and a human culture by making the assumption that artifacts are

4224-517: Is known as Tumaco-La Tolita. Some researchers think that there were large migrations from Mesoamerica that influenced the Tolita culture on its origins, although this hypothesis has not been proven. The peak of the Tolita culture lasted around 700 years, after which new cultural transformations took place, these are marked by the appearance of the El Morro cultural phase in AD 350. C. in the area of Tumaco, which

4352-417: Is located on the island of the same name, on the Cayapas River delta in Ecuador. This site originally gave name to this culture. It is a ceremonial center that consists of a town with a large number of Tolas that form a U-shaped town square , these Tolas give the island its name. The site functioned as a regional necropolis , for this reason abundant burials have been found there. The first inhabitants of

4480-449: Is marked by the rise and dominance of several polities. The traditional distinction between the Early and Late Classic is marked by their changing fortune and their ability to maintain regional primacy. Of paramount importance are Teotihuacán in central Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala; the Early Classic's temporal limits generally correlate to the main periods of these sites. Monte Albán in Oaxaca

4608-462: Is observably true on the broadest scales. For example, the equipment associated with the brewing of tea varies greatly across the world. Social relations to material culture often include notions of identity and status . Advocates of culture-historical archaeology use the notion to argue that sets of material culture can be used to trace ancient groups of people that were either self-identifying societies or ethnic groups . Archaeological culture

4736-696: Is one notable difference between Mesoamerica and the cultures of the South American Andes. Other animals, including the duck , dogs , and turkey , were domesticated . Turkey was the first to be domesticated locally, around 3500 BCE. Dogs were the primary source of animal protein in ancient Mesoamerica, and dog bones are common in midden deposits throughout the region. Societies of this region did hunt certain wild species for food. These animals included deer, rabbit , birds, and various types of insects. They also hunted for luxury items, such as feline fur and bird plumage. Mesoamerican cultures that lived in

4864-644: Is present). [...] The scenes of beheading and obtaining trophy heads are frequent in the Andean area, especially in Peruvian cultures – Cerro Sechín , Cupisnique , Paracas , Nasca , Moche ]; less implicitly in Chavín -, and its presence in Tolita iconography could respond to a diffusion of part of this religious-mythological baggage. The Tumaco-La Tolita burials are famous for their very rich gold and ceramic grave goods , even though there are burials of such kind, these are only

4992-451: Is roughly 200 km (120 mi). The northern side of the Isthmus is swampy and covered in dense jungle—but the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as the lowest and most level point within the Sierra Madre mountain chain, was nonetheless a main transportation, communication, and economic route within Mesoamerica. Outside of the northern Maya lowlands, rivers are common throughout Mesoamerica. Some of

5120-549: Is scarce in the places that were occupied by the Tumaco-La Tolita culture, materials such as andesite and basalt were probably imported from the foothills of the Andean mountains . Studies carried out on obsidian artifacts recovered from Tolita deposits have shown that the vast majority of obsidian was imported from the Mullumica quarries, near the current city of Quito , located in the mountains. Lithic materials were used mainly for

5248-399: Is still in use today in the Tolita region. In addition to the post holes, there are also models of houses or temples that seem to indicate construction with bahareque , a technique for making walls that consists of covering with mud a skeleton of interwoven reeds. The downward curved roof that some of these models have seems to indicate the use of bamboo|beams, which bend due to the weight of

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5376-617: Is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec , a low plateau that breaks up the Sierra Madre chain between the Sierra Madre del Sur to the north and the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south. At its highest point, the Isthmus is 224 m (735 ft) above mean sea level. This area also represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean in Mexico. The distance between the two coasts

5504-640: Is the largest lake in Mesoamerica. Lake Chapala is Mexico's largest freshwater lake, but Lake Texcoco is perhaps most well known as the location upon which Tenochtitlan , capital of the Aztec Empire, was founded. Lake Petén Itzá , in northern Guatemala, is notable as where the last independent Maya city, Tayasal (or Noh Petén), held out against the Spanish until 1697. Other large lakes include Lake Atitlán , Lake Izabal , Lake Güija , Lemoa and Lake Xolotlan . Almost all ecosystems are present in Mesoamerica;

5632-522: Is true for most of the coastline along the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea . The highlands show much more climatic diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates ; the dominant climate is temperate with warm temperatures and moderate rainfall. The rainfall varies from the dry Oaxaca and north Yucatán to the humid southern Pacific and Caribbean lowlands. Several distinct sub-regions within Mesoamerica are defined by

5760-568: The Andean highlands . The origins of the Tumaco culture go back to the first known settlers of the region, the Chorrera culture . They arrived at the beginning of the first millennium BC, and by the year 600 BC. C. the Island of La Tolita was inhabited for the first time. With the passage of time their culture slowly transformed and became unique to the region, by 350 BC. C. their culture had already become what

5888-526: The Chorrera period. These fields continued to be used even after the disappearance of the Tolita culture. No Tolita house has been found, this indicates that they built using perishable materials that disappeared over time. The only surviving evidence of the construction of houses or temples are postholes that were dug to anchor wooden poles that would have supported the roof of some building. The houses built in flat areas were probably built on piles to protect them from flooding, this construction technique

6016-613: The Cora and Huichol , the Chontales, the Huaves, and the Pipil, Xincan and Lencan peoples of Central America. Central American Area: Los Naranjos By roughly 6000 BCE, hunter-gatherers living in the highlands and lowlands of Mesoamerica began to develop agricultural practices with early cultivation of squash and chili. The earliest example of maize dates to c. 4000 BCE and comes from Guilá Naquitz ,

6144-800: The Grijalva River , the Motagua River , the Ulúa River , and the Hondo River . The northern Maya lowlands, especially the northern portion of the Yucatán peninsula, are notable for their nearly complete lack of rivers (largely due to the absolute lack of topographic variation). Additionally, no lakes exist in the northern peninsula. The main source of water in this area is aquifers that are accessed through natural surface openings called cenotes . With an area of 8,264 km (3,191 sq mi), Lake Nicaragua

6272-653: The Itza at Tayasal and the Kowoj at Zacpeten , remained independent until 1697. Some Mesoamerican cultures never achieved dominant status or left impressive archaeological remains but are nevertheless noteworthy. These include the Otomi , Mixe–Zoque groups (which may or may not have been related to the Olmecs), the northern Uto-Aztecan groups, often referred to as the Chichimeca , that include

6400-886: The Kaqchikel at Iximche in the Guatemalan highlands. The Pipil resided in El Salvador , the Nicarao were in western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica , and the Ch'orti' were in eastern Guatemala and northwestern Honduras . In central Mexico, the early portion of the Postclassic correlates with the rise of the Toltec and an empire based at their capital, Tula (also known as Tollan ). Cholula , initially an important Early Classic center contemporaneous with Teotihuacan, maintained its political structure (it did not collapse) and continued to function as

6528-918: The Monte Alto Culture may have preceded the Olmec. Radiocarbon samples associated with various sculptures found at the Late Preclassic site of Izapa suggest a date of between 1800 and 1500 BCE. During the Middle and Late Preclassic period, the Maya civilization developed in the southern Maya highlands and lowlands, and at a few sites in the northern Maya lowlands. The earliest Maya sites coalesced after 1000 BCE, and include Nakbe , El Mirador , and Cerros . Middle to Late Preclassic Maya sites include Kaminaljuyú , Cival , Edzná , Cobá , Lamanai , Komchen , Dzibilchaltun , and San Bartolo , among others. The Preclassic in

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6656-424: The Postclassic are differentiated by the cyclical crystallization and fragmentation of the various political entities throughout Mesoamerica. The Mesoamerican Paleo-Indian period precedes the advent of agriculture and is characterized by a nomadic hunting and gathering subsistence strategy. Big-game hunting, similar to that seen in contemporaneous North America, was a large component of the subsistence strategy of

6784-412: The Purépecha ) were located in Michoacán and Guerrero. With their capital at Tzintzuntzan , the Tarascan state was one of the few to actively and continuously resist Aztec domination during the Late Postclassic. Other important Postclassic cultures in Mesoamerica include the Totonac along the eastern coast (in the modern-day states of Veracruz , Puebla , and Hidalgo ). The Huastec resided north of

6912-424: The migration of the peoples themselves. A simplistic example of the process might be that if one pottery-type had handles very similar to those of a neighbouring type but decoration similar to a different neighbour, the idea for the two features might have diffused from the neighbours. Conversely, if one pottery-type suddenly replaces a great diversity of pottery types in an entire region, that might be interpreted as

7040-434: The turkey and dog , resulted in a transition from paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer tribal groupings to the organization of sedentary agricultural villages. In the subsequent Formative period, agriculture and cultural traits such as a complex mythological and religious tradition , a vigesimal numeric system, a complex calendric system , a tradition of ball playing , and a distinct architectural style , were diffused through

7168-405: The Americas began on Hispaniola in 1493. In world history, Mesoamerica was the site of two historical transformations: (i) primary urban generation, and (ii) the formation of New World cultures from the mixtures of the indigenous Mesoamerican peoples with the European, African, and Asian peoples who were introduced by the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Mesoamerica is one of the six areas in

7296-404: The Chiapas highlands, and Kaminaljuyú in the central Guatemala highlands, were important southern highland Maya centers. The latter site, Kaminaljuyú, is one of the longest occupied sites in Mesoamerica and was continuously inhabited from c. 800 BCE to around 1200 CE. Other important highland Maya groups include the Kʼicheʼ of Utatlán , the Mam in Zaculeu , the Poqomam in Mixco Viejo , and

7424-438: The Classic Maya logosyllabic script . In Central Mexico, the city of Teotihuacan ascended at the height of the Classic period; it formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south into the Maya area and northward. Upon the collapse of Teotihuacán around 600 CE, competition between several important political centers in central Mexico, such as Xochicalco and Cholula , ensued. At this time during

7552-424: The Epi-Classic period, the Nahua peoples began moving south into Mesoamerica from the North, and became politically and culturally dominant in central Mexico, as they displaced speakers of Oto-Manguean languages . During the early post-Classic period, Central Mexico was dominated by the Toltec culture, and Oaxaca by the Mixtec . The lowland Maya area had important centers at Chichén Itzá and Mayapán . Towards

7680-429: The Isla de la Tolita. They are known for the construction of earthen mounds known as Tolas, ceramic crafts and especially metalworking, since they handled gold with great skill and were also the first artisans in the world to work with platinum . The Tumaco-La Tolita culture lived on the coasts of the present-day province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador and extended as far north as Buenaventura , in Colombia. The region has

7808-406: The Late Period, the site was abandoned for unknown reasons. Some researchers think that this place was more than a ceremonial center, according to them it was also a center of political power. That is, it was the capital of a big chiefdom or kingdom that ruled over the Tumaco-La Tolita region. The site is in El Morro Island, in Tumaco Bay, which today is part of the city of Tumaco. According to

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7936-401: The Mesoamerican Paleo-Indian. These sites had obsidian blades and Clovis -style fluted projectile points . The Archaic period (8000–2000 BCE) is characterized by the rise of incipient agriculture in Mesoamerica. The initial phases of the Archaic involved the cultivation of wild plants, transitioning into informal domestication and culminating with sedentism and agricultural production by

8064-439: The National Museum) in Colombia and Ecuador respectively to preserve the most outstanding pieces. The Central Bank of Ecuador would even take a presumably Tolita piece as its logo, the so-called Golden sun of the Central Bank . In the decades that followed, more exhaustive studies were carried out on this culture, although they were hevily influenced by the international border that divides the Tumaco-La Tolita territories. Some of

8192-405: The Olmec include San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán , La Venta , and Tres Zapotes . Specific dates vary, but these sites were occupied from roughly 1200 to 400 BCE. Remains of other early cultures interacting with the Olmec have been found at Takalik Abaj , Izapa , and Teopantecuanitlan , and as far south as in Honduras . Research in the Pacific Lowlands of Chiapas and Guatemala suggest that Izapa and

8320-452: The Pacific coast. In the subsequent Preclassic period , complex urban polities began to develop among the Maya , with the rise of centers such as Aguada Fénix and Calakmul in Mexico; El Mirador , and Tikal in Guatemala, and the Zapotec at Monte Albán . During this period, the first true Mesoamerican writing systems were developed in the Epi-Olmec and the Zapotec cultures. The Mesoamerican writing tradition reached its height in

8448-421: The Totonac, mainly in the modern-day states of Tamaulipas and northern Veracruz. The Mixtec and Zapotec cultures, centered at Mitla and Zaachila respectively, inhabited Oaxaca. The Postclassic ends with the arrival of the Spanish and their subsequent conquest of the Aztecs between 1519 and 1521. Many other cultural groups did not acquiesce until later. For example, Maya groups in the Petén area, including

8576-446: The archaeological culture found. Accusations came that archaeological culture was "idealist" as it assumes that norms and ideas are seen as being "important in the definition of cultural identity." It stresses the particularity of cultures: "Why and how they are different from the adjacent group." Processualists , and other subsequently critics of cultural-historical archaeology argued that archaeological culture treated culture as "just

8704-462: The archaeological record of particular sites and regions, often alongside and as a synonym of "civilisation". It was not until the 20th century and the works of German prehistorian and fervent nationalist Gustaf Kossinna that the idea of archaeological cultures became central to the discipline. Kossinna saw the archaeological record as a mosaic of clearly defined cultures (or Kultur-Gruppen , culture groups) that were strongly associated with race . He

8832-538: The archaeologist Jean François Bouchard, the island was an important port in the times of the Tumaco-La Tolita culture, since it provides an easy access to all the rivers that flow into the Tumaco Bay. The archaeologist interpreted the island as a colony of La Tolita whose main objective was the collection of gold on the shores of Tumaco. Archaeological culture Different cultural groups have material culture items that differ both functionally and aesthetically due to varying cultural and social practices. This notion

8960-435: The area. Villages began to become socially stratified and develop into chiefdoms , and large ceremonial centers were built, interconnected by a network of trade routes for the exchange of luxury goods, such as obsidian , jade , cacao , cinnabar , Spondylus shells, hematite , and ceramics. While Mesoamerican civilization knew of the wheel and basic metallurgy , neither of these became technologically relevant. Among

9088-431: The broader use of the word that was introduced to English-language anthropology by Edward Burnett Tylor , Kultur was used by German ethnologists to describe the distinctive ways of life of a particular people or Volk , in this sense equivalent to the French civilisation . Works of Kulturgeschichte (culture history) were produced by a number of German scholars, particularly Gustav Klemm , from 1780 onwards, reflecting

9216-488: The central Mexican highlands is represented by such sites as Tlapacoya , Tlatilco , and Cuicuilco . These sites were eventually superseded by Teotihuacán , an important Classic-era site that eventually dominated economic and interaction spheres throughout Mesoamerica. The settlement of Teotihuacan is dated to the later portion of the Late Preclassic, or roughly 50 CE. In the Valley of Oaxaca , San José Mogote represents one of

9344-412: The civilization extended North and South from its heartland in southern Mexico. The term was first used by the German ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff , who noted that similarities existed among the various pre-Columbian cultures within the region that included southern Mexico, Guatemala , Belize , El Salvador , western Honduras , and the Pacific lowlands of Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica . In

9472-575: The close of the period. Transformations of natural environments have been a common feature at least since the mid Holocene. Archaic sites include Sipacate in Escuintla , Guatemala, where maize pollen samples date to c. 3500 BCE. The first complex civilization to develop in Mesoamerica was that of the Olmec , who inhabited the Gulf Coast region of Veracruz throughout the Preclassic period. The main sites of

9600-582: The control of a Toltec empire. Chronological data refutes this early interpretation, and it is now known that Chichén Itzá predated the Toltec; Mexican architectural styles are now used as an indicator of strong economic and ideological ties between the two regions. The Postclassic (beginning 900–1000 CE, depending on area) is, like the Late Classic, characterized by the cyclical crystallization and fragmentation of various polities. The main Maya centers were located in

9728-557: The earliest complex civilizations was the Olmec culture, which inhabited the Gulf Coast of Mexico and extended inland and southwards across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec . Frequent contact and cultural interchange between the early Olmec and other cultures in Chiapas , Oaxaca , and Guatemala laid the basis for the Mesoamerican cultural area. All this was facilitated by considerable regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica , especially along

9856-559: The earth that is extracted right next to them, thus creating an elongated raised fields and known as camellones . The water will accumulate in the channels while the camellones remain dry, allowing cultivation even in the rainy season. This farming system brings several advantages in addition to keeping the land dry. The deeper channels that remain waterlogged year-round also serve as irrigation water reservoirs and attract fish and other animals that can be hunted. Within these channels organic matter accumulates and slowly decomposes to become

9984-576: The end of the post-Classic period, the Aztecs of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mesoamerica. The distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition ended with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Eurasian diseases such as smallpox and measles , which were endemic among the colonists but new to North America, caused the deaths of upwards of 90% of the indigenous people, resulting in great losses to their societies and cultures. Over

10112-531: The existence of nuclear zones of high culture, from which it spread to peripheral zones. They considered that Tumaco-La Tolita was a peripheral area, which is why Max Uhle proposed the theory of the Mayoid Cultures, in which he argued that all the transformations of La Tolita were caused to waves of migrants from Mesoamerica . The Tumaco-La Tolita region became a very attractive place for scholars, but also attractive for treasure hunters, who systematically looted

10240-405: The expressions of cultural ideas or norms. (...) This approach (...) was termed "culture history" by many (...). This view of culture would be "entirely satisfactory if the aim of archaeology was solely the definition and description of these entities." However, as the 1960s rolled around and archaeology sought to be more scientific, archaeologists wanted to do more than just describe artifacts, and

10368-535: The island in 1925 and published the first maps of the site, in which the Tolas that give name to the place can be seen. In 1949, the American John Rowe published the first work on this culture in Colombia, and, in 1955, the Colombian Julio César Cubillos published his studies of the area, already using the name Tumaco Culture, despite the fact that both Cubillos and Rowe were well aware that

10496-484: The island settled around 600 BC., they belonged to the Chorrera culture , they built small hamlets scattered throughout the place. It was not until the so-called Classic period (between 200 BC and 75 AD) that the place became a small city and the construction of the Tolas began. It reached its maximum population during the Late Tolita period (between AD 90 and 400), which has been estimated at around 5,000 inhabitants. After

10624-528: The jaguar, the shark and the caiman . Some researchers think that these three animals could have been the main deities in Tolita mythology, since each one of them is the greatest predator of the ecosystems where the people of Tumaco-La Tolita would have lived; the jaguar is the largest predator in the jungle, the shark is the largest predator in the sea, and the caiman is the largest predator in rivers and mangrove forests . Some researchers believe that several of these animals, natural or not, could have represented

10752-418: The lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize , Guatemala , El Salvador , and parts of Honduras , Nicaragua and Costa Rica . As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. In the pre-Columbian era , many indigenous societies flourished in Mesoamerica for more than 3,000 years before the Spanish colonization of

10880-432: The low flatlands of the northern Yucatán Peninsula. The tallest mountain in Mesoamerica is Pico de Orizaba , a dormant volcano located on the border of Puebla and Veracruz . Its peak elevation is 5,636 m (18,490 ft). The Sierra Madre mountains, which consist of several smaller ranges, run from northern Mesoamerica south through Costa Rica . The chain is historically volcanic . In central and southern Mexico,

11008-421: The lowlands and coastal plains settled down in agrarian communities somewhat later than did highland cultures because there was a greater abundance of fruits and animals in these areas, which made a hunter-gatherer lifestyle more attractive. Fishing also was a major provider of food to lowland and coastal Mesoamericans creating a further disincentive to settle down in permanent communities. Ceremonial centers were

11136-438: The manufacture of textiles. The plains of the Tumaco-La Tolita region present a great challenge for intensive agriculture, since these lands are prone to flooding during the rainy season, making agriculture impossible for a few months every year. To deal with this problem, the farmers of the Tolita culture resorted to the construction of channels and camellones. This technique consists of digging elongated channels and accumulating

11264-676: The manufacture of tools and utensils such as grinding stones , polished stone axes, weights for fishing nets, etc. Small stones were embedded in some ceramic graters to make the rough surfaces required for grating. Basalt, obsidian, chert and limonite flakes have also been found that were surely used as scrapers or knives. Tools such as needles, pins, awls, etc. were made of bone and deer antler . Although these materials were also used for artistic purposes, such as carving statuettes, flutes, etc. Sometimes shells such as spondylus and mother of pearl were inlaid. A large range of organic materials were probably used, but they have not survived to

11392-463: The more general " culture history " approach to archaeology that he began did replace social evolutionism as the dominant paradigm for much of the 20th century. Kossinna's basic concept of the archaeological culture, stripped of its racial aspects, was adopted by Vere Gordon Childe and Franz Boas , at the time the most influential archaeologists in Britain and America respectively. Childe, in particular,

11520-573: The more important ones served as loci of human occupation in the area. The longest river in Mesoamerica is the Usumacinta , which forms in Guatemala at the convergence of the Salinas or Chixoy and La Pasión River and runs north for 970 km (600 mi)—480 km (300 mi) of which are navigable—eventually draining into the Gulf of Mexico . Other rivers of note include the Río Grande de Santiago ,

11648-603: The more well known are the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System , the second largest in the world, and La Mosquitia (consisting of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve , Tawahka Asangni, Patuca National Park , and Bosawás Biosphere Reserve ) a rainforest second in size in the Americas only to the Amazonas . The highlands present mixed and coniferous forest. The biodiversity is among the richest in

11776-636: The most, although there is also evidence of the use of stone, shells, horns, bone, wood, basketry, textiles, feathers, etc. The artisans of the Tumaco culture excelled in the work of gold, platinum and tumbaga (an alloy between gold and copper). These metals were mainly used for the manufacture of artistic objects. A large number of metallic masks and body ornaments such as beads, rings, diadems, bracelets, dental inlays, and even gold threads were made, which were presumably used to decorate clothing. Although some copper tools were also made, such as chisels, tweezers, needles, pins, hooks, etc. The earliest evidence of

11904-465: The mythical ancestors of several families, since there are a large number of human figurines that wear these characters in their headdresses, there are also cases of people who were buried with some of these animals, which would have been sacrificed in honor of the deceased. The art historian Costanza di Capua proposed the hypothesis that the ritualistic collection of trophy heads was practiced by La Tolita people, and that these perhaps were offerings for

12032-489: The next centuries, Mesoamerican indigenous cultures were gradually subjected to Spanish colonial rule. Aspects of the Mesoamerican cultural heritage still survive among the indigenous peoples who inhabit Mesoamerica. Many continue to speak their ancestral languages and maintain many practices hearkening back to their Mesoamerican roots. The term Mesoamerica literally means "middle America" in Greek. Middle America often refers to

12160-496: The northern lowlands. Generally applied to the Maya area, the Terminal Classic roughly spans the time between c. 800/850 and c. 1000 CE. Overall, it generally correlates with the rise to prominence of Puuc settlements in the northern Maya lowlands , so named after the hills where they are mainly found. Puuc settlements are specifically associated with a unique architectural style (the "Puuc architectural style") that represents

12288-558: The northern lowlands. Following Chichén Itzá, whose political structure collapsed during the Early Postclassic, Mayapán rose to prominence during the Middle Postclassic and dominated the north for c. 200 years. After Mayapán's fragmentation, the political structure in the northern lowlands revolved around large towns or city-states, such as Oxkutzcab and Ti’ho ( Mérida, Yucatán ), that competed with one another. Toniná , in

12416-415: The nuclei of Mesoamerican settlements. The temples provided spatial orientation, which was imparted to the surrounding town. The cities with their commercial and religious centers were always political entities, somewhat similar to the European city-state , and each person could identify with the city where they lived. Ceremonial centers were always built to be visible. Pyramids were meant to stand out from

12544-449: The oldest permanent agricultural villages in the area, and one of the first to use pottery. During the Early and Middle Preclassic, the site developed some of the earliest examples of defensive palisades , ceremonial structures, the use of adobe , and hieroglyphic writing . Also of importance, the site was one of the first to demonstrate inherited status , signifying a radical shift in socio-cultural and political structure. San José Mogote

12672-679: The past few decades has established that it was first settled during the Early/Late Classic transition but rose to prominence during the Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic. During its apogee, this widely known site economically and politically dominated the northern lowlands. Its participation in the circum-peninsular exchange route, possible through its port site of Isla Cerritos , allowed Chichén Itzá to remain highly connected to areas such as central Mexico and Central America. The apparent "Mexicanization" of architecture at Chichén Itzá led past researchers to believe that Chichén Itzá existed under

12800-519: The practice of secondary burial , which causes bones to not remain in their proper position within the skeleton. In addition, in several of these headless skeletons, the neck vertebrae do not bear cut marks. To explain the existence of decapitation in the Tolita Art, the archaeologist said the following: Nos inclinamos a creer que la decapitación ritual en la cultura Tolita, más que una práctica real pudo pertenecer al ámbito mitológico (de manera análoga

12928-448: The present day due to decay, although there are some indirect sources that hint the use of these materials. Among these is the wood for the manufacture of canoes and the use of bahareque (use of reeds and mud to construct walls) for the construction of houses, which have been represented in ceramic sculptures. On the other hand, the existence of spinning tools such as spindle whorls and the figurines with representations of clothing show

13056-604: The remainder of the northern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula . Other areas include Central Mexico, West Mexico, the Gulf Coast Lowlands, Oaxaca , the Southern Pacific Lowlands, and Southeast Mesoamerica (including northern Honduras ). There is extensive topographic variation in Mesoamerica, ranging from the high peaks circumscribing the Valley of Mexico and within the central Sierra Madre mountains to

13184-416: The rest of the city, to represent the gods and their powers. Another characteristic feature of the ceremonial centers is historic layers. All the ceremonial edifices were built in various phases, one on top of the other, to the point that what we now see is usually the last stage of construction. Ultimately, the ceremonial centers were the architectural translation of the identity of each city, as represented by

13312-463: The roof since it is a flexible material. Some of these models show animals incorporated into the architecture. The first scholars of the Tumaco-La Tolita culture thought that its art was nothing more than the representation of the natural environment and daily life. Within this line of thought, it was believed that anthropozoomorphic representations (representations of humans with animal parts) were actually representations of shamans who were undergoing

13440-606: The same culture had already been named as La Tolita on the other side of the border. The Austrian Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff carried out the first Carbon-14 dating studies on the Colombian side, while the American Betty Meggers began the task of the chronological periodization of the Tolita culture on the Ecuadorian side in 1966. These first researchers were highly influenced by the theories of diffusionism , which proposed

13568-555: The so-called Chimney Tombs, which are found inside the tolas. They consist of vertical tubes made from ceramic cylinders called Timburas. Due to the number of burials that have been found on the Island of La Tolita, it is suspected that this place was a necropolis where people from all over the region were buried. Tumaco-La Tolita archaeological sites are mainly fields of canals and ridges used for cultivation or small towns with Tolas (mounds). There are two sites that stand out: La Tolita and Morro de Tumaco. The site known as La Tolita

13696-543: The standard terminology of precolumbian anthropological studies. Conversely, the sister terms Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica , which refer to northern Mexico and the western United States, respectively, have not entered into widespread usage. Some of the significant cultural traits defining the Mesoamerican cultural tradition are: Located on the Middle American isthmus joining North and South America between ca. 10° and 22° northern latitude , Mesoamerica possesses

13824-621: The time following the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century is classified as the Colonial period. The differentiation of early periods (i.e., up through the end of the Late Preclassic ) generally reflects different configurations of socio-cultural organization that are characterized by increasing socio-political complexity , the adoption of new and different subsistence strategies , and changes in economic organization (including increased interregional interaction). The Classic period through

13952-407: The tradition of cultural history , the prevalent archaeological theory of the early to middle 20th century, Kirchhoff defined this zone as a cultural area based on a suite of interrelated cultural similarities brought about by millennia of inter- and intra-regional interaction (i.e., diffusion ). Mesoamerica is recognized as a near-prototypical cultural area. This term is now fully integrated into

14080-482: The type artifact or type site that defines the culture. For example, cultures may be named after pottery types such as Linear Pottery culture or Funnelbeaker culture . More frequently, they are named after the site at which the culture was first defined such as the Hallstatt culture or Clovis culture . Since the term "culture" has many different meanings, scholars have also coined a more specific term paleoculture, as

14208-480: The use of metals in the region comes from the archaeological site called Las Balsas, near the Islandof la Tolita, where a sheet of gold was found that was dated between 915 and 780 BC. The metal-smiths of the Tolita culture were the first in the world to work the platinum, at least 1,400 years before European blacksmiths, who did not use this metal until the 18th century. This metal has a very high melting point , which

14336-411: The veneration of their gods and masters. Stelae were common public monuments throughout Mesoamerica and served to commemorate notable successes, events, and dates associated with the rulers and nobility of the various sites. Given that Mesoamerica was broken into numerous and diverse ecological niches, none of the societies that inhabited the area were self-sufficient, although very long-distance trade

14464-416: The works that stand out are the excavations of Francisco Valdez in the Island of la Tolita, those of José Alcina Franch in the province of Esmeraldas, those of Jean François Bouchard and those of Diogenes Patiño in the Tumaco region or the extensive study of Tolita iconography by María Fernanda Ugalde. From the remains of the Tolita material culture , metallurgy and pottery are the ones that stand out

14592-552: The world where ancient civilization arose independently (see cradle of civilization ), and the second in the Americas, alongside the Caral–Supe in present-day Peru . Mesoamerica is also one of only five regions of the world where writing is known to have independently developed (the others being ancient Egypt , India , Sumer , and China ). Beginning as early as 7000 BCE, the domestication of cacao , maize , beans , tomato , avocado , vanilla , squash and chili , as well as

14720-786: The world, though the number of species in the red list of the IUCN grows every year. The history of human occupation in Mesoamerica is divided into stages or periods. These are known, with slight variation depending on region, as the Paleo-Indian , the Archaic , the Preclassic (or Formative), the Classic , and the Postclassic . The last three periods, representing the core of Mesoamerican cultural fluorescence, are further divided into two or three sub-phases. Most of

14848-508: Was allied with Caracol and may have assisted in the defeat of Tikal), and Dos Pilas Aguateca and Cancuén in the Petexbatún region of Guatemala. Around 710, Tikal arose again and started to build strong alliances and defeat its worst enemies. In the Maya area, the Late Classic ended with the so-called " Maya collapse ", a transitional period coupling the general depopulation of the southern lowlands and development and florescence of centers in

14976-629: Was believed to be a monolithic culture is shown by further study to be discrete societies. For example, the Windmill Hill culture now serves as a general label for several different groups that occupied southern Great Britain during the Neolithic . Conversely, some archaeologists have argued that some supposedly distinctive cultures are manifestations of a wider culture, but they show local differences based on environmental factors such as those related to Clactonian man. Conversely, archaeologists may make

15104-490: Was characterized by a totally different ceramic style, and by the abandonment of the Island of La Tolita around 400 AD. C. A transition period occurred between 500 and 700 AD. C., it was marked by the gradual depopulation of the coastal regions. Its causes are unknown. The first archaeological studies of the Tumaco-La Tolita Culture were carried out by non-Ecuadorian or Colombian archaeologists . The first of them

15232-400: Was common only for very rare goods, or luxury materials. For this reason, from the last centuries of the Archaic period (8000 BCE– 1000 BCE) onward, regions compensated for the environmental inadequacies by specializing in the extraction of certain abundant natural resources and then trading them for necessary unavailable resources through established commercial trade networks. The following

15360-521: Was eventually overtaken by Monte Albán , the subsequent capital of the Zapotec empire , during the Late Preclassic. The Preclassic in western Mexico, in the states of Nayarit , Jalisco , Colima , and Michoacán also known as the Occidente, is poorly understood. This period is best represented by the thousands of figurines recovered by looters and ascribed to the " shaft tomb tradition ". The Classic period

15488-771: Was not achieved until the Industrial Revolution , so the Tolita blacksmiths had to develop techniques to work the metal without melting it, one of them is called sintering , which is achieved by mixing platinum powder in gold or silver. The contrast of the white color of the platinum with the yellow of the gold was used to create bi-colored pieces. Ceramic was used for manufacture of utensils for daily use as well as sculptures and figurines. They made vessels of different shapes and for different purposes. The most common are alcarrazas , globular vessels, vases, bowls and plates, these last two types are usually presented as tripod vessels. These vessels were profusely decorated. Red paint

15616-566: Was particularly interested in reconstructing the movements of what he saw as the direct prehistoric ancestors of Germans, Slavs, Celts and other major Indo-European ethnic groups in order to trace the Aryan race to its homeland or Urheimat . The strongly racist character of Kossinna's work meant it had little direct influence outside of Germany at the time (the Nazi Party enthusiastically embraced his theories), or at all after World War II. However,

15744-571: Was predominantly used by the Maya during the Early Classic), and jade from the Motagua valley in Guatemala. Tikal was often in conflict with other polities in the Petén Basin , as well as with others outside of it, including Uaxactun , Caracol , Dos Pilas , Naranjo , and Calakmul . Towards the end of the Early Classic, this conflict lead to Tikal's military defeat at the hands of Caracol in 562, and

15872-435: Was responsible for formulating the definition of archaeological culture that is still largely applies today. He defined archaeological culture as artifacts and remains that consistently occur together. This introduced a "new and discrete usage of the term which was significantly different from current anthropological usage." His definition in particular was purely a classifying device to order the archaeological data. Though he

16000-551: Was sceptical about identifying particular ethnicities in the archaeological record and inclined much more to diffusionism than migrationism to explain culture change, Childe and later culture-historical archaeologists, like Kossinna, still equated separate archaeological cultures with separate "peoples". Later archaeologists have questioned the straightforward relationship between material culture and human societies. The definition of archaeological cultures and their relationship to past people has become less clear; in some cases, what

16128-514: Was the American Marshall Saville , who visited the Island of la Tolita and surrounding areas of Esmeraldas and Nariño attracted by the news of the incredible gold hoards found there, he published the results of his research in 1910 already using and the name of Tolita Culture. The gold and platinum artifacts from La Tolita became very popular after this publication in museums around the world. The German archaeologist Max Uhle visited

16256-506: Was the staple crop in the region, and remained so through modern times. The Ramón or Breadnut tree ( Brosimum alicastrum ) was an occasional substitute for maize in producing flour. Fruit was also important in the daily diet of Mesoamerican cultures. Some of the main ones consumed include avocado , papaya , guava , mamey , zapote , and annona . Mesoamerica lacked animals suitable for domestication, most notably domesticated large ungulates . The lack of draft animals for transportation

16384-571: Was very common, and was sometimes combined with white, orange, cream, brown, or black. Other decoration techniques such as negative painting or incisions with geometric motifs were also used. Other ceramic utensils were spindle whorls and graters. They made a large number of ceramic figurines , there are anthropomorphic , zoomorphic and hybrid. The anthropomorphic figurines display clothing and body adornments, some carry musical instruments, others appear to be ill, show cranial deformation or portray elder people. The zoomorphic figurines represent

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