Ecuador - Mayo Chinchipe - Marañón archaeological landscape

The material remains of the Mayo Chinchipe Marañón culture demonstrate the development of a society 5500 years ago, living in the mega-diverse environment of the Amazon Region, interacting with it and using its resources optimally, attaining high levels of symbolism. They also held exchange with cultures in coastal regions of present-day Ecuador, as shown by their use of the Spondylus and Strombus shells from there. This is all reflected in its sacred architecture and an array of objects with great symbolic value. They also feature the world’s first traces of cocoa use. Cocoa is from the Amazon region, and not from Central America (as previously thought) and was already being consumed 5,500 years ago, as found by research conducted by Ecuadorian and French archaeologists that was sponsored by the IRD and INPC, who found the vestiges of a major culture in southeastern Ecuador.