Ecuador offers little archeological evidence of its…

Ecuador offers little archeological evidence of its pre-Hispanic civilizations.

Nonetheless, its most ancient artifacts—remnants of the Valdivia culture found along the coast north of the modern city of Santa Elena in Guayas Province—date from as early as 3500 BCE.

Other major coastal archaeological sites are found in the provinces of Manabi and Esmeraldas; major sites in the Sierra are found in Carchi and Imbabura provinces in the north, Tungurahua and Chimborazo provinces in the middle of the Andean highlands, and Cafiar, Azuay, and Loja provinces in the south.

Nearly all of these sites are dated in the last two thousand years.

Large parts of Ecuador, including almost all of the Oriente, however, remain unknown territory to archaeologists.

Knowledge of Ecuador before the Spanish conquest is limited also by the absence of recorded history within either the Inca or pre-Inca cultures as well as by the lack of interest taken in Ecuador by the Spanish chroniclers.

Before the Inca conquest of the area that comprises modern-day Ecuador, the region is populated by a number of distinct tribes that speak mutually unintelligible languages and are often at war with one another.

Four culturally related native groups, known as the Esmeralda, the Manta, the Huancavilca, and the Puna, occupy the coastal lowlands in that order from north to south.

They are hunters, fishermen, agriculturalists, and traders.

Trade is especially important among different coastal groups, who seem to have developed considerable oceanic travel, but the lowland cultures also trade with the peoples of the Sierra, exchanging fish for salt.

The Sierra is populated by elements, from north to south, of the Pasto, the Cara, the Panzaleo, the Puruha, the Canari, and the Palta cultures.

These people live mostly on mountainsides and in widely dispersed villages located in the fertile valleys between the Cordillera Occidental (Western Chain) and the Cordillera Oriental (Eastern Chain) of the Andes.

The Sierra natives are a sedentary, agricultural people, cultivating corn, quinoa, beans, and many varieties of potatoes and squashes.

The use of irrigation is prevalent, especially among the Cañari.

A wide variety of fruits, including pineapples and avocados, is grown in the lower, warmer valleys.

Historians believe that political organization centered around local chieftains who collaborated with one another in confederations or were subjected to "kings."

Such local chiefs have considerable authority; they can raise armies, for example, and administer communal lands.