5. Identification of Artifacts

Abstract

The identification of the archaeological material from the Galápagos islands is naturally dependent on the state of knowledge of the mainland archaeology. It should therefore be remembered that the archaeology of certain areas on the coast of Ecuador and Peru is still very little known. Thus, for instance, the far north of Peru, with such principal aboriginal ports as Piura and Tumbez, is virtually unknown, and the situation is not very much better with regard to the main Ecuadorian navigation center of the Guayaquil Bay area. Archaeologically, the best known section of the mainland immediately east of the Galápagos is the central part of the North Peruvian coast with such valleys as Moche, Chicama, and Virú. Organized archaeology in this area, with a chronological approach, first began with Uhle in the early part of this century, and continued with the work of Kroeber, Bennett, Larco Hoyle, and others, all of whom confined their chronological research almost entirely to burials, and especially to the classical types of funeral ceramics. Before Uhle, a number of publications on prehistoric art of the North Peruvian coast had appeared, but nearly all of them were based on the rich museum collections of funeral goods that had accumulated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.