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Trekking the Shore pp 355–382Cite as

Coastal Resources and the Early Holocene Las Vegas Adaptation of Ecuador

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Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology ((IDCA))

Abstract

This essay focuses on the archaeological evidence used to interpret the preceramic Las Vegas culture of the Santa Elena Peninsula of southwest Ecuador. The Las Vegas people are probably the best-studied Early Holocene occupants of South America, and their case has special importance because they developed subsistence systems focused on both wild resources and domesticated plants in a coastal locale in the neotropics. Their choices enabled economic, social, and ideological innovations that facilitated the emergence of more complex cultures.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All dates are cited in uncalibrated radiocarbon years BP (RCYBP). Geological periods are Terminal Pleistocene (11,000–10,000 rcyBP), Early Holocene (10,000–7,000 rcyBP), and Middle Holocene (7,000–3,000 rcyBP).

  2. 2.

    Mangroves are extremely productive biotic zones characterized by economically useful plants, and inhabited by myriad vertebrate and invertebrate creatures. The mangrove is a critical breeding ground for hundreds of marine and wetland species.

  3. 3.

    Speculative reconstructions of the geological history have suggested that the Early Holocene Rio Grande formerly (date unspecified) debouched near Salinas (Fig. 15.3), possibly creating continuous mangrove formations between its present mouth and Salinas (Ferdon 1981; Sheppard 1932, 1937; Stothert 1988:Fig. 13.1).

  4. 4.

    Re-analysis of a sample of Las Vegas fauna by Markus Tellkamp has revealed a number of new bird species that indicate the presence of wetlands and mangrove formations (Stothert and Tellkamp 2006). Similarly, a new analysis of the Las Vegas molluscan assemblage reveals a significant number of apple snails (Pomacea) throughout the midden, but particularly in Early Las Vegas levels (Kathleen Clark, personal communication 2008): these snails are common in freshwater ponds, suggesting that at least seasonally the Las Vegas people counted on the resources of standing water.

  5. 5.

    The dendrocalibrated ranges for all of the Las Vegas radiocarbon dates are found in Stothert et al. 2003:Table 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, 78249, USA

    Karen E. Stothert

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  1. Karen E. Stothert
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Correspondence to Karen E. Stothert .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fac. Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS), Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Faro, 8005-139, Portugal

    Nuno F. Bicho

  2. Dept. Anthropology, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40292, Kentucky, USA

    Jonathan A. Haws

  3. Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97331, Oregon, USA

    Loren G. Davis

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Stothert, K.E. (2011). Coastal Resources and the Early Holocene Las Vegas Adaptation of Ecuador. In: Bicho, N., Haws, J., Davis, L. (eds) Trekking the Shore. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8219-3_15

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