Cotocollao
(1500 - 500 a.C.)

This people of sedentary agriculturalists settled the plateau of Quito the surrounding valleys. The largest village was built on the shores of a lake. Several separate groups of rectangular houses formed the town. The walls were built of lath-and-mud (bahareque) and the roof was thatched with straw. Wooden platforms serving as beds were laid beside the fireplaces and the store-holes.

Small cemeteries were found amidst the groups of houses. The most ancient cemeteries are formed by individual tombs that lodge corpses covered with corn leaves. On the other hand, in the most recent interments were laid disorderly into a kind of corpses “communal grave”.

Indian corn (maíz), kidney beans (fréjoles), potatoes, sweet potatoes. Indian goosefoot (quinoa), and lupins were cultivated by this people, who complemented the diet with deer and turtle-dove hunting. By exchanging their products for staples from warmer zones. (c.g. cotton), they managed to manufacture clothes as evidenced by the great quantity of whorls found.

Used for domestic and ceremonial purposes, these vessels were made occasionally of ceramic, and specially of polished stone. Their nature makes these objects unique pieces in the archaeology of Ecuador.