Between metals and treads: an archaeometric approach to metallic artefacts from yaguachi chiefdom burials (Guayas Basin, Ecuador)

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The Yaguachi chiefdom was one of the largest groups in the region prior and during Spanish contact. The Yaguachi polity was part of the Milagro-Quevedo archaeological culture, who occupied the entire Guayas Basin in the central and southwestern Ecuador between Guayaquil and the Andes during the Integration (800-1400 CE) and early Hispanic Period. This was a highly organized society with a complex political and social organization, evidence of long distance trade, metal jewelry, mound construction and chimney burials. During excavations on the lower Guayas Basin, the ‘Vuelta Larga’ burial mounds were identified. Some of these burials contained offerings of various types, including local goods like pottery, and foreign ones like metal artefacts, shell beads and obsidian. This research will attempt to determine the metal artefacts’ composition, the relation between artefact’s composition, color and class, possible connection to other sites or cultures of the Andes and the source of the fibers attached to some of the artefacts, through the use non-destructive analytical techniques: stereomicroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy and environmental SEM. From these analyses, connections to other sites might be drawn based on artefacts’ metallic composition and manufacturing technique.