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Sea Fishing at Salango (Manabí Province, Ecuador) During the Middle Formative Machalilla Phase

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Philippe Béarez ,
Patrick Gay  and
Richard Lunniss
Philippe Béarez
Affiliation:
UMR 7209 Archéozoologie, archéobotanique: sociétés, pratiques et environnements, Département Écologie et gestion de la biodiversité, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, 55 rue Buffon, 75231 Paris cedex 05, France (bearez@mnhn.fr)
Patrick Gay
Affiliation:
Formerly of Centro de Investigaciones y Museo de Salango, Puerto López, Manabí, Ecuador (museosalango@yahoo.com)
Richard Lunniss
Affiliation:
Centro Cívico Ciudad Alfaro, Montecristi, Manabí, Ecuador (richard_lunniss@hotmail.com)
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Abstract

Formative Ecuadorian coastal societies possessed the technologies and skills necessary not only for fishing, but also for deep-sea navigation. Although marine shellfish are acknowledged as significant both for dietary and religious purposes, the importance of sea-fishing is rarely highlighted or explored. In order to help evaluate more fully the significance of the sea in the Ecuadorian Formative, this paper presents recently studied evidence, excavated at the Salango site, in the Province of Manabí, for local off-shore tuna fishing during the Middle Formative Machalilla phase (ca. 1500–900 B.C.), where Scombrids constituted 80 percent of recovered fish remains. The results are then compared with those obtained from other Machalilla sites. Finally, data from the subsequent Late Formative Engoroy phase (ca. 900–100 B.C.) indicate that while Scombrid fishing continued to predominate at Salango, species capture changed through time, with a shift from yellowfin tuna in the Machalilla phase to black skipjacks in Engoroy times. It is suggested that the decline in tuna capture reflects not so much change in fishing strategy as change in the populations of fish species reaching the local marine environment.

Las sociedades costeras del Formativo ecuatoriano poseyeron las tecnologías y las habilidades necesarias no sólo para la pesca, sino también para la navegación de altamar. Pero a pesar de que los recursos marinos se reconocen como significativos en relación a los aspectos dietéticos y religiosos, raramente se destaca o se explora la importancia de la pesca. Para evaluar con más claridad el valor y el significado del mar durante el período Formativo ecuatoriano, el presente trabajo aporta nuevas evidencias, excavadas en el sitio Salango, Provincia de Manabí, sobre la pesca de atún y especies afines durante la fase Machalilla (ca. 1500–900 a.C.). Se pone en evidencia una pesca de grandes peces pelágicos, donde los escómbridos constituyen el 80 por ciento de los restos de pescados recuperados. Luego, se comparan los resultados con aquellos obtenidos en otros sitios Machalilla del litoral ecuatoriano. Los grandes anzuelos circulares recuperados en los niveles Machalilla probablemente fueron utilizados para la pesca del atún. Para terminar, los datos de la siguiente fase a Engoroy (ca. 900–100 a.C.) indican que mientras la pesca de los Scombridae continuaba predominando en Salango, hubo un cambio en cuanto a la captura de especies: mientras el atún aleta amarilla predominaba en la fase Machalilla, fueron los barriletes negros los que prevalecieron en tiempos Engoroy. Se sugiere que la baja en la captura del atún no refleja un cambio en los patrones de pesca, sino más bien cambios en el comportamiento de los peces frente a la explotación.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 195 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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