Ancient site · Settlement
Real Alto
A village site in the Chanduy valley on the coast of Ecuador, first identified in 1971. It is the best-studied settlement of the Valdivia culture, one of the earliest pottery-making farming peoples in the Americas.
By about 2500 BCE perhaps 1,250 people lived here in houses arranged around two plazas with two ceremonial mounds. One of their crops was leren (Calathea allouia), a starchy root.
- Dates
- Valdivia village c. 3800–1500 BCE (earlier traces)
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 2.37° S, 80.65° W
How we know
No writing existed; the village is dated by radiocarbon and by its changing pottery styles.
Nearby sites
- Sipán (Huaca Rajada) c. 50–700 CE
- Huaca Prieta c. 12,500–2000 BCE
- Huacas del Sol y de la Luna c. 100–800 CE
- Sechín Bajo c. 3500–1300 BCE
- Chavín de Huántar c. 1200–500 BCE (dates debated)
- Caral (Sacred City of Caral-Supe) c. 2600–2000 BCE
Related
- Valdivia culture archaeological culture