Early Evidence of Trade across the Andes between the Pacific and the Amazon

Valdez F.; Núñez Q.O. · The Oxford Handbook of South American Archaeology (2026)

Resumen

The Huancabamba-Marañón region is a cultural corridor between the Andes and the Amazon that has been densely populated throughout time. This area, rich in cultural landscapes, shows the early interaction its inhabitants had through the varied trans-Andean geography. The Upper Amazon was crucial in its sociocultural development since 5500 BP. The Mayo Chinchipe–Marañón culture, located at the Ecuador-Peru frontier, provides an excellent example of the precocious evolvement of the inhabitants of this part of the eastern fringes of the Andean Cordillera. The deep enrooted cosmological identities these people shared are manifest in the presence of an early ceramic tradition, coeval with the Valdivia culture of the Pacific coast. The technological innovations experienced on both sides of the Andes, during the Early Formative period, advocate for the importance of the interactions. Evidence of products such as coca and domesticated coco went from the Upper Amazon to the coast, and ideologically rich sea shells were transported across the Andes. The Huncabamba depression was the geographical corridor that facilitated the exchange of ideas and products that later were to become a hallmark of the Andean civilization. © Oxford University Press 2026.

Instituciones: Universidad Científica del Sur