Bahía

Regional Development
(850 B.C.E. – 600 A.C.E.)

Bahía culture was located south of today’s Manabí Province, with ceremonial centers located on the islands of La Plata and Salango. Its ritual practices and characters have remained, represented in figures manufactured from metal, shells, ceramics and stone with evident ceremonial purposes, representing serpents or serpent-like figures that reveal Bahía myths and beliefs.

The Bahía ceramics that have remained for posterity, with their polished, brilliant surfaces, provide examples of the technological advances achieved by those who made them. We have also unearthed utilitarian ceramics, including graters in a variety of forms, especially in the form of fishes, which must have been used for grinding yuca and other food obtained thanks to the important level of agriculture developed in this period.

Giant Bahía

The social stratification of Bahía culture was captured in innumerable pieces: larger than life characters represented in ceramics; men and women holding staffs of leadership, clearly commanding some type of authority; others occupying the spiritual world, chewing coca mixed with an alkaline substance called “llipta”,whose boxes and grinding instruments they hold in their hands.

Elaborately dressed, they adorn themselves with simple or complex headdresses and decorate their bodies with pendants symbolizing their sexuality or perhaps their reproductive capacity. According to that which is expressed in their ceramics, women dressed in colored skirts under naked torsos. Since they practiced textile industry, men also clothed their bodies.  Standing in solemn postures, or seated in the lotus position, they are depicted alone or in pairs in multicolored ceramics.

You can view this piece and more like it in our Quito Museum. Purchase your own unique Ecuadorian art in one of our 5 shops in mainland Ecuador and the Galapagos during your next Ecuador tour. If you are interested in learning more about Ecuadorian culture and the history of Ecuador, please visit our Art in Ecuador page for many great articles about each region’s artisans and arts.