Chimú presence in Ecuador: a statement of the case

Abstract

Several finds of Chimú ceramics have been reported in different parts of presentday Ecuador, especially on the coast and in the highlands. The coastal finds have been hypothetically associated with Spondylus exchange. Those from the sierra (where Chimú-Inca ceramics have also been found), would be more closely linked to the Inca presence and the displacement of mitmaqkuna populations.

This panorama raises a series of questions: what other elements support the existence of exchange networks between the Chimú and the coastal cultures of present-day Ecuador? What do the Chimú and Chimú-Inca ceramics found in the Sierra tell us about the contacts between local cultures before and after the Inca occupation?

Despite the lack of contexts for most of the Chimú and Chimú-Inca ceramics reported in Ecuador, the present essay proposes to address these questions from a global approach, starting from a balance of the general characteristics of these ceramics, also taking into account the dynamics of the different groups involved in the Ecuadorian sierra and coast, within the general perspective of the interactions between the Chimú and their cultural neighbors.

In the case of the coast, the presence of Spondylus in contexts of the Chimú core area is currently the only concrete evidence of contact between this area and the Ecuadorian coast, where only three samples of Chimú material culture have been reported. It is suggested that further studies on axe-monies, black Manteño-Huancavilca pottery, and the indigenous languages of the southern Ecuadorian and northern Peruvian coast could provide additional data on the nature of the contacts between the groups of the Ecuadorian coast and the Chimú.

Chimú objects (ceramics) found in the Sierra are much more numerous. The origin of most of them is unknown, but they could be associated with exchanges between the Cañaris and the Chimú or with the spread of Chimú material culture promoted by the Incas. Of particular interest are two exceptional excavations whose findings of Chimú pottery are possibly linked to the presence of mitmaqkuna from the north coast of Perú.