Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:56:45.311Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prehistoric trade between Ecuador and West Mexico: a computer simulation of coastal voyages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Richard T. Callaghan
Richard T. Callaghan*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta Canada T2N 1N4
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The author studies prehistoric sea travel along the coast between West Mexico and Ecuador using a computer simulation incorporating the performance characteristics of sailing rafts. The model predicts that while northward voyages may have taken as little as two months, southward voyages would have entailed at least five months and may have required a strategy that took the rafts offshore for as long as a month.

Keywords

West MexicoEcuadortradesailing raftsnavigation
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 77 , Issue 298 , December 2003 , pp. 796 - 804
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anawalt, P. R. 1992. Ancient cultural contacts between Ecuador, West Mexico, and the American Southwest: clothing similarities, Latin American Antiquity 3(2): 114–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baleato, A. 1988. Monogrfia de Guayaquil, in Estrada, J. (ed.), La Balsa: 97–108. Guayaquil: Instituto de–Historia Maritima.Google Scholar
Callaghan, R. T. 1999. Computer simulations of ancient voyaging, The Northern Mariner/Le Marin Du Nord 1: 24–33.Google Scholar
Callaghan, R. T. 2001. Analysis of ceramic age seafaring and interaction potential in the Antilles, Current Anthropology 42(2): 308–13.Google Scholar
Callaghan, R. T. 2003a. Comments on the Mainland Origins of the Preceramic Cultures of the Greater Antilles. Latin American Antiquity. 14 (3): 325–328.Google Scholar
Callaghan, R. T. 2003b. The Use of Simulation Models to Estimate Frequency and Location of Japanese Edo Period Wrecks Along the Canadian Pacific Coast. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 17 (1): 62–82.Google Scholar
Cross, S. L., Baker, P. A., Seltzer, G. O., Fritz, S. C. & R. B. Dunbar. 2000. A new estimate of the Holocene lowstand level of Lake Titicaca, central Andes, and implications for tropical palaeohydrology. The Holocene 10: 21–32.Google Scholar
Doran, E. 1978. Seaworthiness of sailing rafts, The Anthropological Journal of Canada 16(3): 17–22.Google Scholar
Edwards, C. R. 1965a. Aboriginal sail in the New World, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21: 351–58.Google Scholar
Edwards, C. R. 1965b. Aboriginal watercraft on the Pacific coast of South America. Ibero-Americana: 47, London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, C. R. 1969. Possibilities of pre-Columbian maritime contacts among New World civilisations, in Kelly, J. C. & Riley, C. L. (ed.), Pre-Columbian contact within nuclear America, Mesoamerican Studies V: 310. Carbondale, IL: University Museum, Southern Illinois University.Google Scholar
Edwards, C. R. 1978. Pre-Columbian maritime trade in Mesoamerica, in Lee, T. A. & Navarrete, C. (ed.), Mesoamerican communication routes and cultural contacts, Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation, 40: 199–209.Google Scholar
Estrada, J. 1988. Vital Alzar, de Guayaquil a Australia en Balsa, in Estrada, J. (ed.), La Balsa: 319–364. Guayaquil: Instituto de Historia Maritima.Google Scholar
Estrada, Y., Estrada, J. 1988. Las Balsas, in , J. (ed.), La Balsa: 187–200. Guayaquil: Instituto de Historia Maritima.Google Scholar
Haug, G. H., Hughen, K. A., Sigmam, D. M., Peterson, L. C. & U. Rohl. 2001. Science 293: 1304–1309.Google Scholar
Holm, O. 1988. Las islas Galápagos en la prehistoria ecuatoriana, in Estrada, J. (ed.), La Balsa: 169–185. Guayaquil: Instituto de Historia Maritima.Google Scholar
Hosler, D. H. 1988. Ancient west Mexican metallurgy: South and Central American origins and west Mexican transformations, American Anthropologist 90: 832–55.Google Scholar
Hosler, D., Lechtman, H. & O. Holm. 1990. Axe-monies and their relatives. Studies in pre-Columbian art and archaeology, No. 30. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Irwin, G., Bickler, S. & Quirke, P.. 1990. Voyaging by canoe and computer: experiments in the settlement of the Pacific Ocean, Antiquity 64: 34–50.Google Scholar
Kan, M., Meighan, C. & Nicholson, H. B.. 1989. Sculpture of ancient west Mexico: Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.Google Scholar
Marchant, R., Behling, H., Barrio, J-C., Cleef, A., Duivenvoorden, J., Van Geel, B., Van Der Hammen, T., Hooghiemstra, H., Kuhry, P., Melief, B. M., Van Reenen, G. & Wille, M.. 2001. Mid- to Late-Holocene pollen-based biome reconstructions for Colombia. Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 1289–1308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marchant, R., Behling, H., Barrio, J-C., Cleef, A., Duivenvoorden, J., Hooghiemstra, H., Kuhry, P., Melief, B., Shreve-Brinkman, E., Van Geel, B., Van Der Hammen, T, Van Reenen, G. & Wille, M.. 2002. Pollen-based biome reconstructions for Colombia at 3000, 6000, 12000, 15000 and 18000 14C yr ago: Late Quaternary tropical vegetation dynamics. Journal of Quaternary Science 17: 113–129.Google Scholar
McGrail, S. 2001. Boats of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press Google Scholar
Meighan, C. W. 1969. Cultural similarities between Western Mexico and Andean regions, in Kelly, J. C. & Riley, C. L. (ed.), Pre-Columbian contact within nuclear America, Mesoamerican Studies IV: 11–25. Carbondale, IL: University Museum, Southern illinois university.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, S. E., O’Hara, S. L., Caballero, M. & Davies, S. J.. 2000. Records of Late Pleistocene–Holocene climatic change in Mexico—a review. Quaternary Science Reviews 19: 699–721.Google Scholar
National Imagery and Mapping Agency. 2000a. West coasts of Mexico and Central America, Sailing directions, Pub. 153. Annapolis, MD: Lighthouse Press.Google Scholar
National Imagery and Mapping Agency. 2000b. West coast of South America, Sailing directions, Pub. 125. Annapolis, MD: Lighthouse Press.Google Scholar
Norton, p. 1988. El señorío de Salangone y la Liga de Mercaderes, in Estrada, J. (ed.), La Balsa: 255–275. Guayaquil: Instituto de Historia Maritima.Google Scholar
Piña Chan, R. 1989. The Olmec: mother culture of Mesoamerica. New York: Rizzoli.Google Scholar
Swadesh, M. 1967. Lexicostatistic classification, in McQuown, N. A. (ed.), Linguistics: 79–115. Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 5 (Wauchope, R., general editor). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Thorne, A. G. & Raymond, R.. 1989. Man on the rim: the peopling of the Pacific. Sydney, Australia: Angus and Robertson.Google Scholar
Navy, US. 1995. Marine climatic atlas of the world. Asheville, NC: National Climatic Data Center.Google Scholar
Van Der Hammen, T. 1974. The Pleistocene changes of vegitation and climate in tropical South America. Journal of Biogeography 1: 3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, R. C. 1961. Aboriginal sea navigation between Middle and South America, American Anthropologist 63: 133–35.Google Scholar
Zevallos, M. C. A. 1987. La Gran Navigacion Prehispanica en el Ecuador. Colleccion Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidad de Guayaquil No. 2. Guayaquil: universidad de Guayaquil.Google Scholar