BAHIA CULTURE: CHARACTERISTICS, CRAFTS AND NAVIGATION - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The Bahia culture was a civilization that was distributed throughout the coastal and forested territories of the east of what today corresponds to Ecuador. It is estimated that they inhabited these regions between 600 BC and 600 AD, dividing into two historical stages: Bahía I and Bahía II, each lasting 500 years.

It was one of the most important Ecuadorian indigenous civilizations in the coastal region. They settled in the region corresponding to the Bahía de Caráquez, and during their existence they always extended southwards along the coast, penetrating and adapting to forested ecosystems as well, but never even being considered a civilization of the Ecuadorian mountains.

Sculptures of the Bahia culture

The territory occupied by the Bahia culture is between Bahía de Caráquez and Isla de Plata. Despite its long period of existence - and its contemporaneity with other indigenous civilizations - there are few vestiges of the Bahia culture that have been rescued to reconstruct the internal mechanisms and daily life of this civilization.

History

At the beginning of the 20th century, the first archaeological expeditions were carried out that revealed the possibility of a pre-Hispanic civilization, until then unknown, in the vicinity of Isla de Plata.

The definitive discovery of the Bahia culture is attributed to the Guayaquil archaeologist and historian Francisco Huerta, in the mid-1940s.

Others have been archaeologists who have continued the investigation of the Bahia culture, such as Emilio Estrada, who delved into the chronological aspects of Bahia existence, dividing it into two major stages.

Characteristics of the Bahia culture

Esthetic

According to the findings and research, the Bahia have been considered a culture that placed great importance on appearance and ornaments as part of the personal image and of its members.

Bay men have been revealed to pierce their ears and body parts sometimes to adorn them with precious or rudimentary accessories, depending on their position.

Hierarchy

Similar to some of its contemporaries from the coast and even the highlands, the Bahia culture did not have a military organization or hierarchy among its members, and its chief had a superiority closer to the religious than to the military.

The bay civilization was governed by the practice of agriculture and fishing, as the main economic and livelihood activities.

Culture

The aborigines knew how to take advantage of the qualities of the climate in which they lived to optimize the domestication of their crops and the results of the explorations, as well as to offer a greater quantity of products to nearby cultures that did not have the same climatic advantages.

Bay figure. Metropolitan Museum of Art / CC0

Gastronomy

Despite its proximity to the sea, research has shown that corn was the main component of the Bahia diet, leaving fish products in second place, and land game products even further.

Home

The bay dwellings were built inland, closer to the forest than to the sea, although not entirely far from the beach, to ensure their integrity over time.

They were made mainly with wood and coating of cane and leaves, and due to the solidity of the soil, they were built at the level of this, on rectangular bases, unlike civilizations that inhabited irregular terrain.

Navigation

The Bahia culture is also recognized for its navigation skills. Due to the natural conditions of the environment, as well as their mainly coastal habitat, the aborigines had to develop their knowledge to take advantage of the benefits that the sea offered them.

Map of the Ecuadorian coast where the Bahia settled. Jojagal / CC0

Navigation allowed the Bahia culture to contact and interact with communities inaccessible directly from the mainland, such as the settlements of La Tolita and Guangala, civilizations with their own lordships and orders whose contact with the Bahia resulted in mutual influences for commercial development and cultural.

It is estimated that members of the Bahia civilization built small boats that they used for fishing, transportation, and exploration.

These boats had small sails that allowed them to take advantage of the currents and winds in their favor. They were able to travel the 50 kilometers of distance that separate the Bahía de Caráquez from Isla de Plata.

According to the evidence found especially in Isla de Plata, the researchers concluded that this was considered a zone of ceremonies and pilgrimage, due to the amount of ornaments and ceremonial objects found.

With this it was deduced that the Bahia culture maintained its main settlements on the mainland, embarking for specific purposes.

Ornaments, tools and crafts

Like other Andean pre-Hispanic civilizations, the Bahia culture was able to leave a legacy of pictorial representations through engravings on ceramics and other objects, which were part of the settlements or were used in ceremonies or activities of a cultural nature.

Figure of a noble character of culture. Dorieo / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

This culture gave priority to animal representations in most of its ceramic busts, with the presence of snakes and reptiles in ornamental objects presumably intended for ceremonies.

It is difficult to determine if these beasts were related to specific deities, as has happened in other cultures.

As for his sculptures, also in ceramic, they exalted the ornaments of the head, ears, nose and chest in the male and female figures. It is said that the Bahia citizens worked with molds that allowed them to create figures in different positions in a much more skillful way.

The human figures always had details related to the daily clothing of many of their members, as well as some more in-depth in the case of figurines with greater religious or hierarchical importance.

These figures have been found in different sizes; some with up to almost a meter in height.

The ceramic creation and processing system was not limited only to animal or anthropomorphic representation, but also included the production of everyday utensils for the life of the Bahia culture, and for commercial exchange with neighboring civilizations.

Among the main materials worked by the Bahia aborigines for the trade and the production of tools are stone, bone and seashells; For soft clothing and coverings such as blankets, they made great use of cotton.

References

1. Azevedo, PO (2009). The Historic Center of Bahia revisited. Scaffolding.
2. Bosqued, MC, & Ramos, LJ (nd). FIGURES OF CULTURE BAHÍA (ECUADOR) AT THE MUSEUM OF AMERICA IN MADRID. Madrid.
3. Encyclopedia of Ecuador. (sf). Bahia culture. Obtained from Encyclopedia of Ecuador: encyclopediadelecuador.com.
4. Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. (sf). Bay. Obtained from Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino: precolombino.cl.
5. Zeidler, JA, & Pearsall, DM (1994). Regional Archeology in Northern Manabí, Ecuador, Volume 1: Environment, cultural chronology, and prehistoric subsistence in the Jama River Valley. Pittsburgh, Quito: University of Pittsburgh.