Background to the Project
The archaeological site López Viejo lies towards the east of the modern fishing town of Puerto López, southern Manabí, coastal Ecuador, up on the first low spur of land overlooking the bay at a height of some 20 m. Here the remains of house platforms and low rectangular stone walls characterise more than a hundred structures dating to the Integration period Manteño culture (ca AD 800 - AD 1534), the final precolumbian occupation represented here and dense surface scatters of occupational debris cover the site. Up until the late 1970s it was still possible to see the house platforms, walls of structures and midden mounds across an area measuring approximately 400 sq m. Since then, housing development has resulted in the progressive loss of the site, until now only a few ‘windows' survive through which it is possible to direct archaeological research. The López Viejo Project has directed its attention to one of these ‘windows' - an area of some 50 sq m to the eastern edge of the town, in the modern Barrío Míramar - and a programme of archaeological research has been underway here since 1992, with a total of four main seasons of excavation up until the summer of 1997. This research has afforded us important insights into the Late Integration period Manteño way of life here, and in particular, has allowed us to study the material remains of the local cottage industry in the production of decorative ornaments fashioned from mother-of-pearl, spondylus, bone, copper and, occasionally, gold. These formed an important component of the supply-side of the long distance exchange system known to have been engaged in by merchants along this part of the coast down through antiquity.
López Viejo is one of a group of related sites of Machalilla, Agua Blanca, Puerto López and Salango, distributed in an arc along the coast of southern Manabí, Ecuador, which are believed to have formed the nucleus of ‘Calangone' - a confederation of towns under the authority of a single political leadership, which seems to have been responsible for organising the mercantile traffic here. The first European contact with this region probably occurred between 1525 and 1527 during Francisco Pizarro's second exploratory expedition along the north west coast of South America. The accounts we are left with from the early chronicles of this period indicate a populous and thriving region, rich in agricultural and coastal resources.
Archaeological Investigations at López Viejo
The present programme of work commenced with a site survey in 1992 and there have since been four main seasons of excavation here: 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1997. The research has received funding from organisations such as the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, The Society of Antiquaries of London and Dumbarton Oaks, Washington. Our investigations here form part of a more general programme of archaeological research conducted along the coast of Ecuador since the turn of the century, and against this background, the precolumbian settlement at Puerto López has long been known. Different studies indicate that the area around the bay in Puerto López has been occupied, probably nearly continuously, since the Early Formative period c.a. 3,000 BC, down to the Spanish Conquest at AD 1534.
Large quantities of all classes of cultural materials are found at López Viejo, including pottery, marine and terrestrial shell and shell artefacts, fish, bird and mammalian bones and bone artefacts, chert and obsidian from the abundant lithics industry here, together with large basaltic stone artefacts (net weights, hammer stones, manos and metate fragments) copper tools and ornaments, and many small ornaments - particularly beads - fashioned from mother-of-pearl and Spondylus shell. Through the four seasons of excavation currently undertaken at the site, some 15, 000 ‘special artefacts' have been found in all, the majority relating to the prolific industry in the production of decorative ornaments with which to produce jewellery and decorated clothing to supply the long-distance trade referred to earlier.
Geophysical survey and excavations have uncovered the remains of an extensive artificial clay platform with a number of bell-shaped shaft pits up to 4m in depth, sunk into it in concentric patterns. Many of these pits contain offerings of fine pottery, ceramic, shell, stone and copper ornaments and figurines, tools and grinding stone equipment as well as carbonised food remains. One of the deeper pits was found to contain the remains of up to twenty humans interred in a hitherto unrecorded mixed burial practice of primary and secondary, burned and unburned bodies, with crania removed and placed around the pit sides. Other flexed inhumations were also discovered on the site, some with grave goods of whole pottery vessels. Domestic dogs were also buried here, and different pits contain the remains of several dogs interred together. In one of these burials a dog had been interred with offerings of necklaces of beads, broken pottery and grinding stone equipment.
Sercapez: a Manteño port of trade
It is the long-term objective of the project to investigate the possible role of López Viejo - believed to be Sercapez of the chronicles - in the supply-side of the long-distance trade in luxury goods and in the confederation of towns referred to as Calangone. The data from four seasons of excavation at the site bear witness to the presence here of a thriving industry in the production of a range of decorative ornaments and probably also decorated cloth, and their tools of production. The existence of more than a hundred large structures with stone foundation walls organised along street lines and around plazas supports the interpretation of a township of some importance. In addition there is evidence to suggest ceremonial activity focussed around the filling of deep bell-shaped pits excavated into an extensive clay platform and a range of different burial practices.
The size of the site and the scale of the industry believed to be represented here, together with its location in a sheltered bay, suggests to us that it was probably both a centre of craft production as well as an actual port of trade from which finished goods were despatched. The antiquity of the industry located here and its development through time is one of the questions that future research at the site hopes to address.
Elizabeth J. Currie
Project Director