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Valdivia culture
South AmericaHeartland today: 
Ecuador
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One of the earliest settled societies in the Americas, living on Ecuador's Santa Elena coast from around 3500 to 1500 BCE. Valdivia potters made some of the oldest ceramics found anywhere in the hemisphere.
Also alive at the same time
Key events
First Valdivia villages rise on the Santa Elena coast, houses set in ovals around a plaza
Sources
- Meggers, Betty J. (1966). Ecuador. Thames & Hudson.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Valdivia culture."
Also happening around
Valdivia potters make some of the oldest fired ceramics known in the AmericasDisputed
Valdivia's earliest pottery dates to about 3500 BCE. Older ceramics are known from the Amazon and the Colombian coast, so Valdivia is among the oldest, not the oldest.
Sources
- Zeidler, James A. (2008). "The Ecuadorian Formative." In Handbook of South American Archaeology, Silverman & Isbell (eds.), Springer.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Valdivia culture."
Also happening around
Valdivia farmers grow maize, beans, squash and cotton alongside fishing
Sources
- Meggers, Betty J. (1966). Ecuador. Thames & Hudson.
- Zeidler, James A. (2008). "The Ecuadorian Formative." In Handbook of South American Archaeology, Springer.
Valdivia communities trade with groups in the Amazon and the Andean highlands
Sources
- Zeidler, James A. (2008). "The Ecuadorian Formative." Springer.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Valdivia culture."
Valdivia settlement patterns end as the coast shifts into the Machalilla culture
Sources
- Meggers, Betty J. (1966). Ecuador. Thames & Hudson.
- Zeidler, James A. (2008). "The Ecuadorian Formative." Springer.