The early settlement of Continental Ecuador: New evidence from preceramic sites in the Tropical Rain Forest

Recent research carried out as part of contract archaeological projects has identified preceramic sites in the Neotropics from the beginning of the Holocene. The new data allow expansion and rethinking of previous models. Unlike the known sites of Sierra and the Coast, the Tropical Rain Forest sites provide secure numerical and relative dating at multicomponent sites with secure feature contexts capped by ceramic occupations. Material culture observed in these new preceramic sites, combined with that already known, clarifies the picture of this period and shows the coexistence of two different technologies, an expedient unifacial flake industry and a bifacial industry, that could be related to the presence of two different human groups of hunter-gatherers during the Preceramic in Ecuador.