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Machalilla
(1500 – 800 a.C).
 This
culture developed in the coastal strip of southern Manabí
and in the Peninsula of Santa Elena, where dry forest and
spiny thickets are the prevailing vegetation. But this people
settled also the rainforest in higher lands. This was the
natural scenery where they practiced an intensive agriculture
alongside with other activities such as hunting, fishing and
gathering.
A custom characteristic of this culture, widely diffused
throughout the coast of Ecuador, was the skull deformation
for the purpose of ornamenting the head and showing the status.
Machalilla cementeries consist of extensive graveyards, an
instance of which is the grave at Salango. A unique characteristics
of these tombs is the setting of the corpse under a ceramic
turtle shell.
A distinctive feature of Machalilla pottery is the bottle
with an ear shaped like a stirrup and decorated with red strips.
The figurines show less aesthetic quality than their former
Valdivian counterparts.
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