User:SimonLuzuriaga/Tumaco-La Tolita Culture

Tumaco-La Tolita culture is... Archaeological culture from Colombia and Ecuador.

The Tumaco-La Tolita culture or Tulato culture, also known as the Tumaco Culture in Colombia or as the Tolita Culture in Ecuador was an archaeological culture that inhabited the northern coast of Ecuador and the southern coast of Colombia during the Pre-Columbian era. It takes its name from the two most representative archaeological sites of the culture, the Isla del Morro in the city of Tumaco and the Isla de la Tolita. They are known for the construction of earthen mounds known as Tolas, ceramic crafts and especially metalworking, since they handled gold with great skill and were also the first artisans in the world to work with platinum.

Geography and climate
The Tumaco-La Tolita culture lived on the coasts of the present-day province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador and extended as far north as Buenaventura, in Colombia. The region has a warm climate, with temperatures of 27 or 28 °C. The landscape of the region is dominated by large and fertile plains covered by tropical rainforest, while the coastal zone is covered by mangrove forests. Riversare abundant in the area, such as the Cayapas River, the Mataje River, the Mira River, the Patía River, etc. The large number of rivers provided Tumaco-La Tolita people with excellent communication routes with the Andean highlands.

History
The origins of the Tumaco culture go back to the first known settlers of the region, the Chorrera culture. They arrived at the beginning of the first millennium BC, and by the year 600 BC. C. the Island of La Tolita was inhabited for the first time. With the passage of time their culture slowly transformed and became unique to the region, by 350 BC. C. their culture had already become what is known as Tumaco-La Tolita. Some researchers think that there were large migrations from Mesoamerica that influenced the Tolita culture on its origins, although this hypothesis has not been proven.

The peak of the Tolita culture lasted around 700 years, after which new cultural transformations took place, these are marked by the appearance of the El Morro cultural phase in AD 350. C. in the area of Tumaco, which was characterized by a totally different ceramic style, and by the abandonment of the Island of La Tolita around 400 AD. C.

A transition period occurred between 500 and 700 AD. C., it was marked by the gradual depopulation of the coastal regions. Its causes are unknown.

Discovery, looting and research
The first archaeological studies of the Tumaco-La Tolita Culture were carried out by non Ecuadorian or Colombian archaeologists. The first of them was the American Marshall Saville, who visited the Island of la Tolita and surrounding areas of Esmeraldas and Nariño attracted by the news of the incredible gold hoards found there, he published the results of his research in 1910 already using and the name of Tolita Culture. The gold and platinum artifacts from La Tolita became very popular after this publication in museums around the world. The German archaeologist Max Uhle visited the island in 1925 and published the first maps of the site, in which the Tolas that give name to the place can be seen.

In 1949, the American John Rowe published the first work on this culture in Colombia, and, in 1955, the Colombian Julio César Cubillos published his studies of the area, already using the name Tumaco Culture, despite the fact that both Cubillos and Rowe were well aware that the same culture had already been named as La Tolita on the other side of the border. The Austrian Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff carried out the first Carbon-14 dating studies on the Colombian side, while the American Betty Meggers began the task of the chronological periodization of the Tolita culture on the Ecuadorian side in 1966.

These first researchers were highly influenced by the theories of diffusionism, which proposed the existence of nuclear zones of high culture, from which it spread to peripheral zones. They considered that Tumaco-La Tolita was a peripheral area, which is why Max Uhle proposed the theory of the Mayoid Cultures, in which he argued that all the transformations of La Tolita were caused to waves of migrants from Mesoamerica.

The Tumaco-La Tolita region became a very attractive place for scholars, but also attractive for treasure hunters, who systematically looted a large number of tombs of this culture in search of precious metal objects that would later be melted and turned into ingots. Among the main buyers of gold from the region were the Bank of the Republic in Colombia and the Central Bank of Ecuador, which sought to increase their gold reserves. It was these same banks that were in charge of creating the Gold Museum and the Central Bank Museum (today known as the National Museum) in Colombia and Ecuador respectively in order to preserve the most outstanding pieces. The Central Bank of Ecuador would even took a presumably Tolita piece as its logo, the so-called Golden sun of the Central Bank.

In the decades that followed, more exhaustive studies were carried out on this culture, although they were hevily influenced by the international border that divides the Tumaco-La Tolita territories. Some of the works that stand out are the excavations of Francisco Valdez in the Island of la Tolita, those of José Alcina Franch in the province of Esmeraldas, those of Jean François Bouchard and those of Diogenes Patiño in the Tumaco region or the extensive study of Tolita iconography by María Fernanda Ugalde.

Material culture
From the remains of the Tolita material culture, metallurgy and pottery are the ones that stand out the most, although there is also evidence of the use of stone, shells, horns, bone, wood, basketry, textiles, feathers, etc.

Metallurgy
The artisans of the Tumaco culture excelled in the work of gold, platinum and tumbaga (an alloy between gold and copper). These metals were mainly used for the manufacture of artistic objects. A large number of metallic masks and body ornaments such as beads, rings, diadems, bracelets, dental inlays, and even gold threads were made, which were presumably used to decorate clothing. Although some copper tools were also made, such as chisels, tweezers, needles, pins, hooks, etc.

The earliest evidence of the use of metals in the region comes from the archaeological site called Las Balsas, near the Islandof la Tolita, where a sheet of gold was found that was dated between 915 and 780 BC.

The metal-smiths of the Tolita culture were the first in the world to work the platinum, at least 1,400 years before European blacksmiths, who did not use this metal until the 18th century. This metal has a very high melting point, which was not achieved until the industrial revolution, so the Tolita blacksmiths had to develop techniques to work the metal without melting it, one of them is called sintering, which is achieved by mixing platinum powder in gold or silver. The contrast of the white color of the platinum with the yellow of the gold was used to create bi-colored pieces.

Pottery
Ceramic was used for manufacture of utensils for daily use as well as sculptures and figurines.

They made vessels of different shapes and for different purposes. The most common are alcarrazas, globular vessels, vases, bowls and plates, these last two types are usually presented as tripod vessels. These vessels were profusely decorated. Red paint was very common, and was sometimes combined with white, orange, cream, brown, or black. Other decoration techniques such as negative painting or incisions with geometric motifs were also used.

Other ceramic utensils were spindle whorls and graters.

They made a large number of ceramic figurines, there are anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and hybrid. The anthropomorphic figurines display clothing and body adornments, some carry musical instruments, others appear to be ill, show cranial deformation or portray elder people. The zoomorphic figurines represent a great variety of animals; fish, mammals, reptiles, birds, etc. And the hybrid figurines represent the mixture between animals and humans, one of the most common representations is the man-jaguar hybrid.

Stone
Stone is scarce in the places that were occupied by the Tumaco-La Tolita culture, materials such as andesite and basalt were probably imported from the foothills of the Andean mountains. Studies carried out on obsidian artifacts recovered from Tolita deposits have shown that the vast majority of obsidian was imported from the Mullumica quarries, near the current city of Quito, located in the mountains.

Lithic materials were used mainly for the manufacture of tools and utensils such as grinding stones, polished stone axes, weights for fishing nets, etc. Small stones were embedded in some ceramic graters to make the rough surfaces required for grating. Basalt, obsidian, chert and limonite flakes have also been found that were surely used as scrapers or knives.

Other materials
Tools such as needles, pins, awls, etc. were made of bone and deer antler. Although these materials were also used for artistic purposes, such as carving statuettes, flutes, etc. Sometimes shells such as Spondylus and Mother of Pearl were inlaid.

A large range of organic materials were probably used, but they have not survived to the present day due to decay, although there are some indirect sources that hint the use of these materials. Among these is the wood for the manufacture of canoes and the use of bahareque (use of reeds and mud to construct walls) for the construction of houses, which have been represented in ceramic sculptures. On the other hand, the existence of spinning tools such as spindle whorls and the figurines with representations of clothing show the manufacture of textiles.