The El Inga archaeological site lies in northern Ecuador, ca<. 22 km by road southeast of Quito, 8 km southeast of the small town of Tumbaco..
54. Possible Relatives in the Americas
El Inga Site (Pichincha, Ecuador)
by George Weber
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The El Inga archaeological site lies in northern Ecuador, ca<. 22 km by road southeast of Quito, 8 km southeast of the small town of Tumbaco..
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The importance of the El Inga site lies not so much in the finds made at the site itself but in the extremely thorough and systematic way the site has been excavated and the results analyzed and published (R.E. Bell, 2000, Archaeoeleogical Investigation at the Site of El Inga, Ecuador, Eds. D.G. Wyckoff and B.A. Schriever, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, ISSN 1530-1742 on which much of the material presented here is based).
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El Inga site lies in a seemingly flat valley that is, in fact, cut by deep erosional gulches. These make movement around the valley difficult today. One such gulch is visible on the left of the picture. The photograph shows the site with a view towards the south. Cotopaxi volcano is visible on the horizon.
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Location of El Inga site and of other known archaeological sites in the Rio Chiche valley. The sites listed below have yielded surface finds to local collectors and were visited by the excavators of El Inga 1961. Local people know many more sites in the area that have not been investigated by archaeologists yet.
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1. EL INGA |
5. Papabamba |
9. Ruvia Cocha 2 |
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The El Inga site lies at 2,550 m above sea level. Areas above 2,700 m above sea level are shown in darker green.
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Robert E. Bell (1914-2006), a founder member of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society in 1952 and excavator of the El Inga site in 1961. The photograph shows Dr. Bell at the site. Co-excavator and researcher of the site was William J. Mayer-Oakes (1923-2005) who spent over 20 years analysing, classifying and comparing the more than 6,000 artefacts excavated at El Ing and the nearby San Jose site. |
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The excavation of the El Inga site by R.E. Bell in 1961. Contour intervals are 2 feet (1 ft = 61 cm). Blue: Test pits Red: 5-foot (1.5 m) excavation grid units Yellow: stratigraphic blocks (SB)
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El Inga today has an uneven, eroded surface with few traces of identifiable archaeological strata. It is probable that the original prehistoric surface was much deeper and had clear strata. With the arrival of agrculture in the area perhaps 5,000 years ago, ploughed earth washed away much more rapidly and the soil above the hard chaugahua underground was much reduced. Ploughing increases erosion and it is likely that as each rainfall washed away some soil soil but left the heavier stone artefacts, the latter became more concentrated and also were mixed up at various depths.
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There is little clearly identifiable stratigraphy at he El Inga site. The result could well be the confusion of C14 dates and layers illustrated further below. |
At various depths five samples of soil containing specks of charcoal were taken and analyzed. Note that "before present" means before the year 2000. Unfortunately, five samples, given the complex situation at the site, were nowhere near enough. Other samples are said to have been taken but their results are not known.
The C14 analysis of the five samples brought up results that remain puzzling today. Inside stratigraphic blocks (SB) 1 and 3, dates were established from various depths in the 1960s and published in R.E. Bell, 2000:
-- in SB1 the younger date was below the older (in the graphic, light blue above grey). Although the dates are close (less than 100 years apart) this is difficult to explain.
-- in SB3 in two adjacent excavation grid units at the same depth ages that differ by almost 4,000 years were found (in the graphic: brown and violet); and in the third grid unit of SB3 the date produced from a level closer to the surface than any other dated level (black) produced an age younger than its more ancient neighbour (brown) but older than its next neighour (violet).
There can be no question, however, that the El Inga site is ancient. The tool types found at El Inga have also been found and more securely dated at other South American sites, for example at Fells cave in Tierra del Fuego).
Clearly, there is a case for going back to El Inga to take more samples for dating. C14 dating technology has made enormous progress since the 1960s and other dating methods not even dreamt of then are available today.
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April 1961: |
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July 1961: |
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August 1961: |
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Group photo taken at the end of the excavation in August 1961. These were the native people who did the excavation work at the El Inga site in 1961. |
The earliest traces of a human presence at the El Inga site appear shortly after 10,000 years before the present and it is one of the richest and most important early archaeological sites in South America.
In the following we can show only a small selection of the tool types found at El Inga. For a comprehensive overview with a great deal of detail you are referred to R.E. Bell, 2000 (details given at the head of this chapter).
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Fishtail points
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One of the stranger tools found at El Inga is a chisel or engraving tool. It was naturally shaped by thermal facture but shows sign of of use by humans on one side. It is 4.9 cm long, 1.6 cm wide and 1 cm thick and was found in level 2. |
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A striated stone of volcanic origin around 7.5 cm long is an intriguing find at the site. It was found in Stratigraphic Block (SB) 3 at a depth of 20-25 cm (upper part of level 3). What the stone was used for is not clear. R.E. Bell notes that the striations cut across contained crystals and matrix of the pebble of volcanic origin it is unlikely that the striations are not the effects of weathering. Instead he thinks that the stone was used as a tool by the inhabitants of the site. Her notes that the striations vary in depth and width and appear to have been produced by rubbing against a sharp edge of hard material. It is likely that this stone was used to grund the stem edges on prjectile points and other artifacts found at El Inga. |
Among web-sites with further information are:
- http://www.edufuturo.com/imprime.php?c=1277
- http://www.stangrist.com/Ilalo.htm
- http://www.doaks.org/RAEC.html
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Last change 9 July 2007
