The Pre-Columbian cultures of Ecuador are
among the oldest in South America and among
the first to master the art of pottery. Although
we know little about the peoples themselves or
their traditions, historians have been able to
piece together a picture of life in Ancient
Ecuador thanks in part to the art and artifacts left
behind. The culture of Valdivia created some of
the oldest known works of art in the Americas.
Situated along the coastal strip of Ecuador, the
Valdivians established a thriving society that
flourished for around two thousand years (from
approximately 3500 to 1500 B.C.). Today they
are famed for their small fertility figures,
believed to be the earliest representational works
of art in the Americas, first carved from stone,
later formed from terracotta.
Hundreds of years later after the Valdivians
disappear from the archaeological record
appears another culture to which the name
Chorrera has been attached (lasting from circa
1100-300 B.C.). Little is known about this
culture; however, it is significant for its
widespread geographical reach. As such, their
artistic style greatly influenced those diverse
cultures that began to emerge in the final
centuries of the Chorrera period, a time
historians have labeled the Period of Regional
Development.
Among the most prominent cultures that
flourished in the wake of the Chorrera are the
cultures of Bahia, Jama Coaque, and La Tolita.
Around 200 B.C., the Bahia developed along the
coastal strip in the modern province of Manabi,
lasting until approximately 600 A.D. Their
earliest terracotta works were greatly indebted to
the Chorrera; however, over the years a
distinctive style emerged characterized by large
figures adorned with detailed dress and body
ornamentation.
Vessels used in long-forgotten rituals often
seem solemn, mysterious, even ominous. That is
not the case with this extraordinary object,
whose mood is defined by the mischievously
grinning spider monkey perched atop its triple-
orbed base. His broad, wicked smile suggests
that whatever the giddy intoxicant this vessel
may origninally have contained, its ceremonial
uses were not to be treated with complete
seriousness.
