Paleodemography of the Valdivia III Phase at Real Alto, Ecuador

Resumen

The Early Formative site of Real Alto on the southern coast of Ecuador yielded a minimum of 72 human burials attributable to the Valdivia III phase. The construction of an abridged life table represents the first demographic analysis of a prehistoric South American population. Expectation of life at birth was 21 years and at age 15 was 18 years. Comparison with model life tables suggests a crude birthrate of 0.048, a generation length of about 26 years, and completed family size of 6.4 children. The fact that the sample represents a natural population argues against the suggestion that the skeletons largely represent victims of ritual sacrifice.