Building on his prior reconnaissance in the area, Dr. Deboer will conduct two seasons of archaeological research in the Santiago and Cayapas basins of the Esmeraldas province in coastal Ecuador. Although very little work has been done in this heavily vegetated tropical region, Dr. Deboer's survey indicates the existence of six distinct archaeological complexes which appear to extend from the first millennium B.C. to the recent past. Because the ground cover is so heavy, Dr. Deboer and his team will follow extant trails and use these as the basis for survey. His assumption is that such trails have great antiquity and thus, prior settlements should be clustered along them. He will also conduct excavation at selected sites. The goals of this research are to define these complexes more clearly, determine their chronology through pottery seriation and radiocarbon dating, and to determine the geographical extent of each. Dr. Deboer will then work to explicate settlement patterns and social organization. Some areas on the Pacific coast of South America have produced spectacular assemblages with monumental architecture, and these have been studied in some detail. Other regions which did not reach this state of development are less known, and Esmeraldas is one of these. Dr. Deboer's survey and excavation will help fill this gap. The research will serve to document the range of variation along the Pacific coast and provide a broader interpretive context. From a larger perspective the research is important because it will increase our understanding of human adaptation at a simple level of technology in the tropics. In this heavily forested region, groups survived by simple agricultural techniques for over a thousand years. The techniques they employed were thus successful over not only the short run, and it may be valuable both in Ecuador and other tropical regions of the world to learn about them.
