Valdivia Culture

The Valdivia Culture thrived in the coast of Ecuador, in a small hill next to the town of Valdivia, between 3500 and 1800 B.C.

The discovery of this culture was done in 1956 by the Ecuadorian archeologist Emilio Estrada. Based on comparison of archeological remains and pottery styles similarity between the Valdivian pottery and the ancient Jomon culture on the island of Kyushu, Japan, Estrada and the American archeologist Betty Meggers suggested that a relationship between the people of Ecuador and the people of Japan existed in ancient times. They theorized that the Japanese had conducted trans-Pacific trade. This theory was revolutionary, for no evidence of contact between the two populations had previously been established.

The Valdivia lived in a community that built its houses in a circle or oval around a central plaza and were sedentary people that lived off farming and fishing, though occasionally they went hunting for the deer. From the remains found, it has been determined that Valdivians cultivated corn, kidney beans, squash, cassava, hot peppers and cotton plants. They used the cotton to make their clothes.

The Valdivian pottery initially was rough and practical, but it became splendid, delicate and large along time. They generally used red and gray colors; and the polished dark red pottery is the most characteristic of the Valdivia period. In their ceramics and stone works, the Valdivia culture shows a progression from the most simple to much more complicated works.

The trademark Valdivia piece is the "Venus" of Valdivia: feminine ceramic figures which were likely used in a variety of unknown rituals of fertility. The "Venus" of Valdivia likely represented actual people, as each figurine is individual and unique, as can be seen by the hairstyles. They were made joining two rolls of clay, leaving the lower portion separated as legs and making the body and head from the higher portion. The arms were usually very short in most cases were bent towards the chest, holding the breasts or under the chin.