540 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



contacts that the people of this culture had with neighboring 

 contemporary groups produced any disturbing effect or resulted in the 

 introduction of any novel elements into their way of life. Part of the 

 explanation of this stability may lie in the habitat, which was un- 

 attractive to the agricultural populations that occupied the rest of the 

 Ecuadorian coast at the time the Jambeli culture was in existence. 



Chronological Position and Affiliations 



Neither carbon-14 nor obsidian dates are currently available for any 

 sites of the Jambeli culture, but several kinds of evidence place it in 

 the Regional Developmental Period in the chronology of the Ecuadorian 

 coast. One is the presence of the ceramic horizon markers — 'white-on- 

 red painting and negative painting — -characteristic of this period. 

 Another is the occurrence of trade pottery and artifacts from the Guan- 

 gala and Bahia cultures in Jambeli refuse, establishing the contem- 

 poraneity of the Jambeli sites with these two Regional Developmental 

 cultures. 



Although decorative techniques are less elaborate and varied than 

 in other regional complexes, the vessel shapes, figurines, shell and 

 stone ornaments, and other aspects of the material culture are typical 

 of the prevailing pattern throughout the coastal area between 500 B.C. 

 and A.D. 500, as is evident from the following tabulation: 



What sets the Jambeli culture apart is its subsistence emphasis. 

 While sites of the Guangala and Bahia cultures contain some shell, 

 this is the principal component of Jambeli habitation refuse. At a 

 time when the conversion to agriculture, introduced in the late 

 Formative, had been achieved to the north, the Jambeli culture 

 apparently preserved the shellfish gathering pattern characteristic 

 of the early Formative Valdivia and Machalilla cultures. An ex- 

 planation for this lag can be found in the hostility of the environment 



