Arid landscapes and environmental transformations in ancient Southwestern Ecuador

Resumen

Abstract The Valdivia valley of southwestern Ecuador is currently an ecotonal area between both northerly and interior humid environments, and southerly and coastal arid environments. Inferences drawn from a sample of archaeologically recovered vertebrate taxa in Early Formative context (3000 BC to 2400 BC) at the site of Loma Alta (OGSEMa‐182), suggest the availability of widely variable habitats, ranging from arid and open, to humid and forested conditions. The sample of vertebrate taxa might represent a prehistoric accumulation from a synchronic range of variable habitats available throughout the valley, even under arid conditions. Nevertheless, its derivation from a severely time‐averaged assemblage in deep village refuse raises the possibility of accumulation in environmentally transformed contexts of variable temporal duration.