Ayalán Cemetery: A Late Integration Period Burial Site on the South Coast of Ecuador

Abstract

Excavation of a Milagro Phase Integration Period cemetery in 1972 and 1973 on the southern coast of Ecuador yielded 54 large funerary urns (AD 730-AD 1730) and 25 primary and two secondary burials (500 BC-AD 1155) located outside of the urns. Radiocarbon dates were obtained from charcoal and bone collagen and their validity is discussed. The urn burials with inverted urn coverings are similar to those reported from other Milagro Phase cemetery sites in Guayas and Los Ríos Provinces. The urns at the Ayalán cemetery contained secondary skeletal remains of as many as 25 persons per urn (average of about nine persons per urn) along with artifacts, such as ceramic jars, plates and compoteras, beads of shell, stone, and pottery, ear and nose rings of copper, silver, and gold, triangular copper plates (axe money), and small spheres of lead with copper inserts. Similar artifacts were found associated with the burials outside of the urns.<br/>Detailed data are presented on archeological features, artifacts, and such biological subjects as demography, pathology, cranial measurements, nonmetric observations, and cultural practices registered in bone. Cultural differences between the urn features and the earlier non-urn features are minimal. Biological data shared by urn and non-urn samples include cranial deformation, reconstructed living stature, and porotic hyperostosis. The urn sample shows greater life expectancy at birth, lower infant mortality, greater adult life expectancy (especially in females), higher frequencies of foot bone alterations (probably indicating kneeling posture), vertebral osteophytosis, arthritic lipping at the knee, dental caries, alveolar abscesses, dental hypoplasia, and evidence of infectious disease. On the other hand, the urn sample shows fewer lines of increased density, fewer healed fractures, a lower frequency of joint degeneration (although more severe examples), and less dental calculus. An appendix by Brian Hesse, "The Association of Animal Bones with Burial Features," examines the faunal remains associated with the burial features.