Santa Ana (La Florida) facts for kids

Santa Ana (La Florida) is a very old archaeological site found high up in the mountains of Ecuador. It's a special place because it shows us how people lived as far back as 3,500 BC! This ancient village is located in the Palanda Canton, which is part of the Zamora-Chinchipe Province in Ecuador.

Where is Santa Ana (La Florida)?

This ancient settlement is found on the eastern side of the Andes mountains. It's in a unique area where the high mountains meet the lowland jungles, right in a narrow valley of the Palanda River. The small Palanda River flows into the Mayo-Chinchipe river, which eventually joins the big Rio Marañon.

The main parts of this historical site cover an area about the size of a football field (about 1 hectare).

Discovering the Past: Research at Santa Ana

Work at Santa Ana (La Florida) began in 2002. A team of archaeologists from France and Ecuador started exploring this amazing area.

Since then, archaeologists led by Francisco Valdez have been studying Santa Ana/La Florida. Their work has led to the discovery of a brand new ancient culture! This culture lived in the Chinchipe river basin, right on the border of what is now Ecuador and Peru.

This ancient group is now called the Mayo-Chinchipe culture. Their land stretched from the Podocarpus National Park in Ecuador all the way to where the Chinchipe River meets the Marañon River in Peru. This culture got its name from these two rivers. In Ecuador, it's called Chinchipe, and in Peru, it's known as Mayo.

Scientists have used a method called carbon dating to find out how old things are from this site. They found that the discoveries are about 5,500 years old (or 3,500 BC). This time period is known as the early Formative Period in Ecuador and the Archaic or Preceramic period in Peru.

Archaeologists have found a village with a special sunken area in the middle. One of the two man-made platforms has a temple shaped like a spiral. Inside the temple, there was a ceremonial fireplace where greenstone offerings were found.

Archaeologists also found several tombs with beautiful items:

• Fine ceramic pots
• Amazing polished stone bowls and grinding tools
• Hundreds of beads made from turquoise and malachite
• Pieces of Strombus sea shells
• Small sculptures

Many different kinds of objects have been found at the site. These include ceramic bottles, plain or decorated stone bowls, medallions, and pieces of necklaces made from turquoise, malachite, and other green stones.

Most of the big building projects at the site happened between 2,600 and 1,700 BC.

Ancient Farming: What They Grew

The people of Santa Ana (La Florida) were skilled farmers. They grew many different crops, including:

• Corn (Zea mays)
• Beans (Fabacceae)
• Manioc (Manihot esculenta)
• Sweet potato (Ipomooea sp.)
• Dioscorea sp.
• Arrowroot (Maranta sp.)
• Hot peppers (Capsicum sp.)
• Cacao (Theobroma sp.)
• Coca (Erythroxylum coca)

The Earliest Evidence of Cacao Use

In 2018, a science journal called Nature Ecology and Evolution shared exciting news from Santa Ana. They reported what is believed to be the earliest evidence of people using cacao (the plant that chocolate comes from) in the Americas! This evidence dates back about 5,300 years ago (or 3,300 BC).

Before this discovery, many people thought that cacao was first grown and used in Mesoamerica (which includes parts of Mexico and Central America). However, we know that the greatest variety of cacao plants is found in the upper Amazon region of northwest South America. This means that this area must be where cacao originally came from.

But how did cacao get from South America to Mexico? Santa Ana (La Florida) helps answer this question! It provides a missing piece of the puzzle.

To confirm their findings, scientists used three different types of archaeological evidence:

• They looked for tiny cacao starch grains.
• They found traces of theobromine, a chemical found in cacao.
• They used ancient DNA dating.

So far, this is the oldest proof of cacao use in the Americas. It's also the first clear archaeological evidence that cacao was used in South America before Christopher Columbus arrived.

See also

In Spanish: Santa Ana-La Florida para niños