Humans have occupied the South American continent for at least 14,000 years. In this long occupation, a variety of modes of human existence have emerged; ponderous civilizations such as the Inka, smaller chiefdoms ruled by a handful of powerful elites, and many mobile foraging groups today known to anthropologists as 'hunter-gatherers'. Around 500AD -- while in Europe the Roman Empire was crumbling and the continent was poised to blunder through the 'Dark Ages' -- there began to emerge in the ecologically rich western coastal lowland, of what is today known as Ecuador, a people known as the Manteņo. Local chiefs began to consolidate social and martial power, possibly indebting other local leaders by holding elaborate feasts for which later repayment, in a variety of forms, was the price. Local chiefs may also have built a power base by taking control of special resource locations like shell beds or wells.

Whatever the means of this initial development of power, by 800AD -- at the time when Vikings were pillaging Northern Europe -- the Western coast of Ecuador was probably under the political and economic control of a few very powerful chiefs. These chiefs managed the economic and religious activities of their subjects, most of whom were arranged in a number of villages composed of houses where individual families carried out the daily tasks of life in the Manteņo chifedom.

What was daily life like for the Manteņo? How did the chiefdom maintain its power? With whom did the Manteņo trade? We know from historic documents and some other sources that the Manteņo were excellent mariners...why did they make long journeys on their balsa vessels? How far did they travel on these massive, 20-ton rafts? These sorts of questions can best be addressed by examining a combination of historical and archaeological evidence.

Some questions -- the main questions asked by the Manteņo expedition -- are best answered by the hands-on method of replicating a Manteņo vessel and retracing a trade route Northwards. While archaeological excavation, interviews with local elders, reviews of historical documents and other studies can aid in our understanding of the Manteņo, we feel that the best appreciation for the life, activities and decisions in the past will come from an expedition which replicates one of these vessels and uses it to sail the same waters we believe were plied for centuries by the Ancient Manteņo.

These web pages introduce some of the research being conducted by the Manteņo expedition, and provide a general introuduction to Manteņo archaeology and, specifically, their sea-faring.

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