THE UTILITARIAN AND RITUAL APPLICATIONS OF VOLCANIC ASH IN ANCIENT ECUADOR by William S. Pratt, B.S. A thesis submitted to the Graduate Council of Texas State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Master of Arts with a Major in Anthropology August 2019 Committee Members: Christina Conlee, Chair David O. Brown F. Kent Reilly III COPYRIGHT by William S. Pratt 2019 FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT Fair Use This work is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, section 107). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of this material for financial gain without the author’s express written permission is not allowed. Duplication Permission As the copyright holder of this work I, William S. Pratt, authorize duplication of this work, in whole or in part, for educational or scholarly purposes only. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Numerous people have contributed over the years both directly and indirectly to the line of intrigue that led me to begin this work. I would like to extend thanks to all of the members of my thesis committee. To Christina Conlee for her patience, council, and encouragement as well as for allowing me the opportunity to vent when the pressures of graduate school weighed on me. To F. Kent Reilly for his years of support and for reorienting me when the innumerable distractions of the world would draw my eye from my studies. And I especially owe a great deal of thanks to David O. Brown for his years of guidance and mentorship without which my career in archaeology may never have taken root. I also would like to thank Fritz Reinthaller, the staff at Parque Cochasquí, and the people of the community of Cochasquí, whose kindness, hospitality, and interest allowed for many of my excavations to come to fruition. I would also like to thank Patricia Mothes and Minard Hall for their consultation on tephrochronology and volcanic eruptions in Ecuador. Thanks to Estanislao Pazmiño for his years of friendship, his discussions of some of the myths surrounding volcanos, and aid in many of my investigations. I owe much thanks also to my good friend and colleague Ryan Hechler with whom I have had the pleasure over the years of sharing many ideas and who helped me greatly in finding material to include in this thesis. I owe an immeasurable amount of thanks to my family for their years of love and support without which I certainly would have been lost. Especially to my parents, who iv were so instrumental in instilling in me an interest in culture, history, geography, and archaeology. Most of all, I would like to thank my loving wife, Amy Goldstein, for her unending support and encouragement all these years. Without her, I surely never would have been able to make it this far. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1 II. METHODOLOGY ..............................................................................................7 Previous Excavations and Archaeological Literature ..................................9 First-Hand Observations ............................................................................10 Survey and Excavation ..............................................................................11 III. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................13 IV. ECUADORIAN PREHISTORY .....................................................................21 The Paleoindian/Preceramic Period (ca. 12,000 BP-3500 BC) .................24 The Formative Period (ca 3500-300 BC) ...................................................25 The Regional Development Period (ca 300 BC-800 AD) .........................29 The Integration Period (ca 800-1532 AD) .................................................31 V. MYTHS, VOLCANISM, AND VOLCANIC STUDIES .................................37 Volcanos in Ecuador ..................................................................................37 Mythology of Volcanos in Ecuador ...........................................................41 Evidence of Climate ...................................................................................45 Glaciation .......................................................................................46 The Sucus Bog Core ......................................................................47 The Huarmicocha Lake Core .........................................................49 Volcanism and Volcanic Studies ...............................................................50 Tephrochronology ......................................................................................52 Abandonment and Migration .....................................................................53 vi Obsidian Sources .......................................................................................54 Eruptions as Drivers of Change and Chronostratigraphic Markers ...........55 Pululahua Volcano .........................................................................55 Quilotoa Volcano ...........................................................................56 Cotopaxi Volcano ..........................................................................60 Discussion ..................................................................................................61 VI. CERAMICS .....................................................................................................63 Clays and Clay Formation .........................................................................63 Volcanic Ash as Ceramic Temper .............................................................65 The Western Montaña ................................................................................66 Chaupicruz Phase Ceramics from Malchinguí ..........................................66 A Comparative Example in the Maya Lowlands .......................................67 The Guangala Culture of Ecuador .............................................................70 Highland Formative Period Ceramic Firing Pits .......................................76 Results and Discussion ..............................................................................79 VII. RITUAL AND BURIAL PRACTICES .........................................................81 Volcanic Ash and the Shaft Tomb Traditions ............................................85 Volcanic Ash and Hemispherical Burial Mounds .....................................87 Volcanic Ash and Pyramid Burials ............................................................92 An Anomalous Instance of Volcanic Ash Incorporated in a Burial ..........94 Results and Discussion ..............................................................................97 VIII. CONSTRUCTION ......................................................................................100 The Cangahua Formation: A Pleistocene-age Indurated Volcanic Ash ..100 Inka Construction Practices from San Agustín de Callo .........................109 Inka Foundations at Hacienda Guachalá ..................................................116 Earthen Pyramid Construction at Cochasquí ...........................................129 Recent Excavations at Cochasquí ............................................................135 A Comparative Case in the Southeastern U.S.A......................................146 The Volcanic Ash Canal of Rumipamba .................................................149 Results and Discussion ............................................................................150 IX. CONCLUSIONS ...........................................................................................153 REFERENCES CITED ....................................................................................................160 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Prehistoric Periods of Ecuador by Region ....................................................................23 2. Volcanos of the Interandean Valley ..............................................................................38 3. The 1280 AD Quilotoa ashfall extent compared to other ashfall extents .....................58 4. The Lowland Maya Region and Volcanically Active Highlands .................................68 5. The south coast of Ecuador with the Santa Elena Peninsula ........................................71 6. Guangala fine-paste, white on red, and coarse-paste ceramics .....................................73 7. Guangala fine-paste polychrome ..................................................................................74 8. Class 1 pumice inclusion ..............................................................................................74 9. Plan map of open-air firing pit lined with Cuicocha ash ..............................................78 10. The extent of highland Ecuadorian and Colombian shaft tomb traditions .................82 11. Various highland Ecuadorian and Colombian shaft tombs.........................................84 12. Profile drawing of Mound a showing intentional