Valdivia Culture
Encyclopedia
The Valdivia Culture is one of the oldest settled cultures recorded in the Americas. It emerged from the earlier Las Vegas culture and thrived on the Santa Elena peninsula near the modern-day town of Valdivia, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 between 3500 BC and 1800 BC.

The Valdivia culture was discovered in 1956 by the Ecuadorian archeologist Emilio Estrada
Emilio Estrada
Emilio Estrada Carmona was President of Ecuador September 1-December 21, 1911....

. Based on comparison of archeological remains and pottery styles (specifically, the similarity between the Valdivian pottery and the ancient Jōmon culture on the island of Kyūshū
Kyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

) Estrada, along with the American archaeologist Betty Meggers
Betty Meggers
Betty Jane Meggers is an American archaeologist best known for her work conducted in association with her husband, Cliff Evans, in South America. Meggers was born on December 5, 1921, in Washington D.C. to William and Edith Meggers. Meggers's father was a physicist as well as an archaeology...

 suggested that a relationship between the people of Ecuador and the people of Japan existed in ancient times. Since then, it has been discovered that people living in the area, and in SW Japan yet uncovered, both have a low rate of a virus not known in other populations, HTLV-1. Part of the theory was that the Japanese had conducted trans-Pacific trade. This theory was controversial, for no evidence of contact between the two populations had previously been suggested, and it remains unsupported within the archaeological community.

The Valdivia lived in a community that built its houses in a circle or oval around a central plaza and were sedentary
Sedentism
In evolutionary anthropology and archaeology, sedentism , is a term applied to the transition from nomadic to permanent, year-round settlement.- Requirements for permanent settlements :...

 people that lived off farming and fishing, though occasionally they went hunting for deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

. From the remains that have been found, it has been determined that Valdivians cultivated maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

, kidney beans, squash
Squash (fruit)
Squashes generally refer to four species of the genus Cucurbita, also called marrows depending on variety or the nationality of the speaker...

, cassava
Cassava
Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...

, hot peppers and cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 plants, the latter of which was used to make clothing.

Valdivian pottery initially was rough and practical, but it became splendid, delicate and large over time. They generally used red and gray colors; 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 Valdivia piece is the "Venus
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...

" of Valdivia: feminine ceramic figures. The "Venus" of Valdivia likely represented actual people, as each figurine is individual and unique, as can be seen by the hairstyles. They were made 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, in most cases were bent towards the chest, holding the breasts or under the chin.

There is a display of Valdivian artifacts in Guayaquil, Ecuador at UEES
UEES
Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo is a non-profit private university located in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Founded by Dr. Carlos Ortega Maldonado, it was accredited by CONESUP, then the Ecuadorian higher education governing agency. Its modern campus is located in Samborondon...

.

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