The Cuban culture Refers to a set of archaeological sites located on the border shared by the provinces of Loja, Azuay and Zamora Chinchipe.
Cubilán is a place of special importance because it is one of the most extensive finds in this country.
In total there are about 20 points of which archaeologists have excavated 2 known as Cu-26 and Cu-27. The area as a whole comprises about 52 square kilometers.
Geography
The archaeological sites of Cubilán are distributed along the river Oña, which is a tributary of the river Jubones.
This zone belongs mainly to the canton of Oña in the southeastern part of the province of Azuay.
This is located at a distance of 103 kilometers from Ciuenca, the provincial capital and at an altitude of 2400 m.s.n.m.
The climate in the canton of Oña is quite a rainy area with precipitation of 654 mm. The average annual temperature in the area is 15.1 ° C.
Due to the great acidity of their soils, it has not been possible to recover any organic material of historical importance in Cubilán since they are not conserved properly in this environment. This site is of strategic importance as it is the shortest and easiest access on the way to the Amazon Basin.
The southern portion of the Andes In Ecuador has certain unique characteristics. The morphology of the soils is glacial type but it has not been possible to discover if these geological formations correspond to the last glaciation occurred.
This fact is of special importance if one takes into account that the area in which Cubilán is located did not suffer the effects of the wisconsin glacial phenomenon, except for the zones of high mountain. This implies that the general climate of the area is of páramo and did not harbor many vegetal resources for the primitive settlers.
Pre-ceramic period
The pre-ceramic period houses the history of the first human settlements in the mountain range of the Andes and its surroundings, when the techniques in ceramics were not yet developed.
The first settlers generally are denominated like Paleo-Indians and they were characterized by the development of líticas tools.
This moment in Ecuadorian history spans a range from approximately 9000 BC. Until 4200 BC. Cubilán is an example of the fact that Ecuador has a Density may R of vestiges corresponding to this time than Peru or Bolivia.
Chronology
According to some remnants of charcoal that were recovered from some of the Cubilán sites, ages are estimated Radiocarbon Ranging from 7110 to 7150 a.C., for the Cu-26 site and 8380 and 8550 a.C., for the Cu-27.
Archaeological Findings
The area known as Cubilán was discovered in 1977 by Matilde Tenne and comprises about 23 specific sites.
The two most known excavations correspond to the sites identified under the codes Cu-26 and Cu-27 as mentioned. Both sites are separated by a distance of 400 meters and studies indicate that they are also separated by about 1,300 years in time.
The use of the site corresponding to Cu-27 is believed to be intended for workshop. This assertion is deduced by the finding of secondary flakes and lithic nuclei.
This site was where stone tools were developed, using as a material a great diversity of stones.
The most used raw material is that which could be found in the surroundings and includes minerals and stones such as jasper, agate, rhyolite, silica and flint. These primitive inhabitants should have been displaced in the area in areas of up to 20 kilometers from Cu-27 to obtain the material.
The groups that lived there were hunter-gatherer types. Apart from the development of lithic tools, it is believed that among his knowledge was also probably the elaboration of baskets, tanning of animal skins, and work on wood and bone.
From the site Cu-26 have been able to extract objects that can be categorized in projectile tips of pedunculated type and folióceo and also diverse types of scrapers and perforators. It has been established that the use of this site was like base camp.
Thus, seven sites used as stoves and apparently belonging to the same period, allow to presume such use.
Around these fires were carried out multiple activities that included the socialization and the primitive cult.
Hunting tools
The shapes and construction of bifacial tips and knives, in particular the foliaceous tips, show some kind of relationship between the communities that managed to cross the Ecuadorian Andes.
It is believed that there were regional adaptations in the technique, but much of this evidence could have been buried thanks to the volcanic eruptions of the Sierra Norte and Centro.
For its part, it has been established that the technique used in the manufacture of the bifacial artifacts found in Cubilán, in particular the projectile points, was based on pressure.
Percussion was also used for the extraction of medium and long flakes, which represented the base on which scrapers, drills and cutting tools were created.
Food, flora and fauna
Exploration of these sites has also revealed the use of domesticated plants such as cassava (Manihotesculenta), sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), pumpkin (Cucurpitaspp.) And maize (Zea mays).
Maize in particular is believed to have been introduced to the mountains of Ecuador between 8053 to 7818 BC. And continually became very important for the inhabitants of the area.
Although in Cubilán could not recover bone remains due to the accelerated decomposition caused by the acidity of the soil. It can be inferred that it was the same type of hunting used in other sites of importance as Chobshi.
In this one the vestiges of white-tailed deer (Odocoileusvirginanus), pudu (Pudumephistopheles) and rabbit (Sylvilagusbrasilensis) abound. It is also believed that in Cubilán other animals such as Condor Or the vulture may have been a source of food for these settlers.
References
1. Azuay, Prefecture of. Oña. [Online] [Quoted on: March 17, 2017.] azuay.gob.ec.
2. Ancestral Ecuador. The early man of Ecuador. [Online] 2009. [Quoted on: March 17, 2017.] ecuador-ancestral.com.
3. Luciano, Santiago Ontaneda. The Original Societies of Ecuador. Quito: Libresa, 2002.
4. Usillos, Andrés Gutiérrez.Dioses, Symbols and Food in the Andes. Quito: Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1998. 9978 22 28-4.
5. Late ninth millennium B.P. Use of Zea mays L. at Cubilán area, highland Ecuador, revealed by ancient starches. Pagan-Jimenez, Jaime R. 2016, Quaternary International, Vol. 404, pp. 137-155.