"Las Vegas culture" is the name given to many Archaic settlements which flourished between 8000 BCE and 4600 BCE near the coast of present-day Ecuador. The name comes from the location of the most prominent settlement, Site No. 80, near the Las Vegas River and now within the city of Santa Elena. The Las Vegas culture represents "an early, sedentary adjustment to an ecologically complex coastal environment."
The Las Vegas culture is important because it was one of the earliest cultures in South America to practice agriculture.
Setting
The Las Vegas culture existed on the coast of Ecuador along the Santa Elena Peninsula from about 8000 BCE to 4600 BCE. It is one of the earliest settlements found in Ecuador and is notable for its role in domesticating wild squash and maize. It is also home to one of the largest burial sites in South America, where remains of at least 192 individuals were found. The Santa Elena peninsula is the northernmost extension of the coastal desert that stretches for some along the Pacific coast of South America. The city of Santa Elena receives about of precipitation annually nearly all of it from January to March. Under the influence of the cool waters of the Humboldt Current, temperatures are mild, averaging with only a few degrees in seasonal variation. The natural vegetation near the coast is xeric featuring cacti and other desert plants. Inland, precipitation generally increases and the vegetation becomes more varied and lush, changing from desert to seasonally dry forest..
Ten thousand years ago sea level on the Santa Elena peninsula was lower than at present. Thus, the known settlements of the Las Vegas period were further inland then than they are now and some ancient settlements may have been covered by the rising sea. The dry climate and xeric vegetation seem to have persisted throughout the 10,000 year period. The sea levels began rising around 7000 years ago, shrinking the area of land the settlement was found on. All life in the area would have been subject to changing sea levels and tectonic shifts over several thousand years. A changing environment affected the subsistence patterns of the Las Vegas people, as noted by a change in diet between the early and late Las Vegas periods. Faunal remains suggest a dry, forested environment that did not receive enough rain throughout the year to turn into a wetland forest. Plant remains support this environment; grass and shrub remains indicative of a dryer climate were found in abundance. The mostly dry season that lasted throughout the majority of the year is typical of regions where maize is grown well. A rise in sea levels along with an annual dry season could have motivated the Las Vegas people to pursue plant domestication and gathering of marine resources for food.
Thirty-two Las Vegas sites have been identified on the Santa Elena peninsula, scattered over an area about east-west and north-south, most along the Rio Grande and its tributaries, including the Las Vegas River. Additional similar sites of human habitation probably remain to be discovered near and along several hundred miles of Ecuadorian coast Prior to the rise in sea levels, the coasts supported mangrove swamps. Mangrove clams were a notable part of the Las Vegas diet. As sea levels rose, the mangroves seem to have been wiped out. After about 6000 BCE, the mangrove clams shrink from Las Vegas assemblages.
Another ancient culture in the area was Real Alto from between 6000 and 3800 BC.
Description
Evidence of a human presence of the Santa Elena peninsula has been radiocarbon dated back to 8800 BCE, but with the onset of the Las Vegas period about 8000 BC, the evidence becomes much more extensive. Archaeologists have divided the Las Vegas culture into two periods: early Las Vegas from 8000 to 6000 BCE, and late Las Vegas from 6000 BCE to 4600 BCE. The dividing line between the two periods is a lacuna in the archaeological record at one representative site. The Las Vegas culture was pre-ceramic, meaning that the people did not utilize pottery.
The sites discovered by archaeologists suggest they were originally established on low hills and in areas where marine life and terrestrial resources were equally accessible. Faunal remains show about half of animal protein consumed was from terrestrial sources, half from marine sources. The human remains found at these sites also seem to indicate that the residents of the Santa Elena Peninsula were healthy and free of anemia.