Communities of fishermen, hunters and farmers who sailed the sea and worked metals lived for a thousand years on the floodable plains and in the mangrove swamps of the Pacific coast, between Esmeraldas in Ecuador and Buenaventura, in Valle del Cauca province. Archaeologists have established that they lived there from 700 B.C. to 350 A.D. Other societies, which did not work gold, then occupied El Morro island and the coastal plain, remaining there until the Conquest.

On islets surrounded by mangrove swamps, the ancient Tumaco communities built small hillocks or mounds, and on these mounds, their homes and burial sites. They fished, gathered seafood, and hunted for birds and small mammals. They formed ridges and trenches on the coastal plains so that the land could be used for growing crops. From river sands they extracted gold and platinum, which they generally worked into small, delicate ornaments.

Their homes, which were rectangular in shape and had gabled roofs, were built on artificial platforms to protect them from flooding. Sailors travelled by canoe all along the coast, from island to island and even inland towards the plains, since sailing was easy at high tide because the mangrove swamps, river mouths and estuaries got flooded. Stone weights that were used on nets and gold hooks are commonly found, and are clear evidence of their fishing activities.

Pottery figurines are also often found in rubbish dumps and burial sites, or near the sea. Most of them appear to have been beheaded, as if they had been broken in some ritual or other. The human figure, which was the potters' main theme, is always realistic, with ornaments inserted in the skin, ear rings and nose rings, and with notable deformations of the skull, a symbol of social rank.

Pottery figures were generally painted, but the colours have faded with the passing of time. Stamps and rollers were used for painting the body. Friar Juan de Santa Gertrudis visited the Pacific coast in 1756, and told of his experiences in the book "Wonders of Nature".

"Various small figures made of clay to a high degree of perfection are normally found there……. There are also others made of gold, with eyes of emeralds, and small filigree gold beads, as small as the head of a pin…"

Santa Gertrudis went on to say the following: "They call this village La Tola, because it is full of 'tolas', or earth mounds.…. These are the burial mounds of ancient indians, and as they were buried with everything they possessed, a lot of valuable articles have been found in some of them".

The privilege of being buried in earth mounds was one that was enjoyed by the chieftains who controlled the economic and ceremonial life of numerous, organised communities. These chieftains were also noted for their use of sumptuous objects like gold necklaces, diadems and nose rings, which were placed with them in their tombs. Some small mounds or 'tolas' at La Tolita contain superimposed, column-shaped pots, called timburas.

The shaman was the man of knowledge in these societies, the person responsible for communicating with the world of the spirits. The dignitaries we see wearing feline masks could perhaps be shamans. The jaguar (Felix concolor) and the puma (Leo onca) in fact symbolise male power and strength in American indian thought, and also the skill and astuteness of the hunting, warlike animal, which the priest seeks to assume himself in his role as mediator between the community and the different worlds in the cosmos.

Tumaco pottery portrayed various scenes from everyday life. Motherhood is a recurring theme, as are illnesses, eroticism and old age.

Tumaco and the Gold Museum Exhibition

Living in the Mangrove Swamp

The Expression of Power in Tumaco - La Tolita

The Life Cycle