The Zooarchaeological Record from Formative ... - Dumbarton Oaks

The Zooarchaeological Record from Formative Ecuador
The Zooarchaeological Record from Formative Ecuador
PETER W. STAHL
BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY
The systematic recovery and analysis of animal remains from
archaeological sites in Ecuador is a recent development of the
past few decades. Although we might cite Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño’s
pioneering work at Quinche (1912) and Cerrito de Macají (1927) as early
exceptions, the potential importance of zooarchaeological data was not actually
realized until the late 1950s with the work of Meggers, Evans, and Estrada
(1965) at the Formative site of Valdivia. Not only did they list the frequencies
and proportions of identified taxa by excavation unit but they also integrated
these data into their interpretation of the site’s early occupation. With the explosion
of interest in Formative archaeology during the late 1960s and early
1970s, the recovery, analysis, and interpretation of archaeofaunal specimens
became somewhat standard, as zooarchaeological data assumed increasing importance
for archaeological inference.
Throughout the relatively brief history of Formative archaeology in Ecuador,
archaeologists have used zooarchaeological data to support inferences about
prehistoric subsistence and ecology. Like most forms of archaeological evidence,
faunal remains were pliably manipulated to support different and often
conflicting interpretations of regional prehistory. Inferential statements generally
complied with the specific research biases and competing theoretical or
methodological interests held by different archaeologists. Coastal sites with abundant
marine and limited or no terrestrial fauna were regarded by some researchers
as examples of a primary or exclusive marine subsistence orientation.
These sites stood in contrast to coastal middens with lower-than-expected
amounts of marine and no recovered terrestrial resources, which were believed
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