In this region we find the island of The Tolita
the reason of the culture´s name. In the past,
on their mountains they constructed temples
of rectangular form by sloping ceilings and
accesses by steps that were used both for the
burial and for the housing of important
prominent figures.
Their economy was based in high
fields, of maize, gourd, chili, bean
and yucca, but also of the hunt for
peccaries, jaguars, deer,
armadillos and zarigüeyas and to
the compilation of snails,
tortoises, iguanas, fish and shell in
the swamp.
La Tolita was a pre-Columbian culture that
spread for the coastal region of Colombia
and Ecuador. The archaeological evidence of
this culture have been dated about 600 B.C.,
whereas in Tumaco the most ancient dates
correspond to 300 to.
Napo
This culture settled in the Napo´s
riverside , in the Amazon region, Ecuador,
from 500 A.C and 1500 A.C. They used to be
caled Omaguas..
The Omaguas painted their ceramics with colors,
and worked with clay, where they represented
animal figures that they worshiped like jaguar, harpy
eagle and anaconda. The Shamanes were the
espiritual leader and they used hallucinogenic plants
for rituals.
Jama Coaque
Between 350 B.C. and 1530 A.C., Jama-Coaque
culture lived on the Ecuadorian coast from the
end of Cape San Francisco up to Caráquez's Bay,
principally in the valleys of Jama and Coaque.
They lived indispersed settlements along the
valleys of the rivers and constructed urban
centers characterized bysquares, temples
and public buildings.
Their diet depended of a varied quantity of
products they cultivated such as maize, beans,
yucca, cotton and the gourd, in the hillsides of the
hills and in ridges or high fields. They
complemented this activity with the fishing and
the hunt for animals like armadillo, jaguar,
tortoise and zarigüeya.
Guangala
The Guangala lived in the peninsula of
Santa Elena, between 200 B.C. and 800
A.C. Where farmers grew maize and
diverse "cucurbitáceas", as the zapallo
and the gourd.
They also complemented their diet with the fishing
crustacean as shrimp and crab of deep waters, the
compilation of seafood in the swamps and the hunt
for animals like deer, armadillos, tortoises and diverse
types of monkeys.
They worked the metal using technologies as
hammering, embossing, smelting and welding
the production of fishhooks of copper, needles
and narigueras.
Bahia
The Bahía culture lived
between 450 B.C. and 700
A.C. on the Coast of
Ecuador and they
extended from Caráquez's
Bay towards the south.
In the middle of a predominantly wooded
landscape, with dry seasons during some months
of the year, they practised the agriculture and the
fishing as means of subsistence.
The Bahías were big navigators. using
small boats with candle to communicate
with neighboring populations as Guangala
and The Tolita, with whom they shared
some technological similarities.