The Cotocollao culture were an indigenous

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

culture that inhabited the valley that is now the

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

area, in

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

Introduction

The Cotocollao natives were the first inhabitants of the mountains of what is now Ecuador. They lived approximately 1,500 to 500 years BCE, in an era known as the ''Formative Period''.

Lifestyle

The Cotocollao lived on farming, cultivating corn, beans,

quinoa Quinoa (''Chenopodium quinoa''; , from Quechua ' or ') is a flowering plant in the amaranth family. It is a herbaceous annual plant grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds; the seeds are rich in protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins, and ...

, potatoes and

Lupin bean Lupin or lupini beans are the yellow legume seeds of the genus ''Lupinus''. They are traditionally eaten as a pickled snack food, primarily in the Mediterranean basin ('' L. albus''), Latin America ('' L. mutabilis'') and North Africa ('' L. ang ...

s. They also hunted deer, rabbit,

guanta Guanta is the capital and largest city of Guanta Municipality. Together with Barcelona, Puerto La Cruz and Lechería it forms a conurbation of around 1.2m inhabitants. The town is named for the cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; fe ...

, puma, wolf, guinea pig and doves. They lived in small villages of rectangular huts of lath and mud with straw thatching. They wore clothing woven from cotton.

Artwork

Probably the most distinguishing feature of the Cotocollao natives was their ability to create

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

artwork. They made ceramics that were more for decoration than for their usefulness. It is not known whether or not they had a special place inside their houses to make ceramic artwork or not. To make the ceramic, the Cotocollaos used a paste made of

pumice Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicular vol ...

powder. The surface of the ceramic is known for its distinctive red tint. So mastered were they at this artwork that some pieces of ceramic are even known to produce certain animal or bird sounds. The quality of the ceramics was superior to all others in that time period. From the thousands of fragments of ceramic found in the area today, about 20% of them are decorated in some form by incisions, red paint, and in some rare cases, an

iridescent Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfl ...

coating.

Decline

The area was gradually abandoned following eruptions of the

Pululahua Pululahua is a dormant volcano in the north of Quito Canton, Pichincha Province, Ecuador. The volcano is in the Western Cordillera of the northern Ecuadorian Andes, approximately west-southwest of Mojanda and north of Casitahua volcanoes. Pulula ...

volcano.

References

Dr. Cruz, George B. "Last Incan Emperor's Trail."
Hosteria San Jorge. 10 Dec. 2006. *Reyes, Oscar Efren. Breve Historia General del Ecuador. Quito: Editora Andina. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cotocollao Culture Indigenous peoples in Ecuador History of Ecuador Pre-Columbian cultures Indigenous peoples of the Andes