Ecuador Program

Days will be spent immersed in the culture of Ecuador, both past and present. Students will learn the basic field techniques of archaeology, including excavation, survey, and laboratory analysis. Classwork will cover archaeology methods and theory, as well as South American archaeology and history. For more details about our research and past findings, see the Pambamarca project website and bibliography section below.

Field trips, called Faculty Developed Practica (FDP), are designed to foster intercultural knowledge. Students will travel to indigenous communities, market towns, ancient archaeological sites, and museums.

We are a short ride to the town of Cayambe, a little over an hour from Quito on weekends. The world-famous artisans and market of Otavalo are located only a half hour to the north. For the adventurous, the headwaters of the Amazon River, the majestic Pacific coastline, and even the Galapagos Islands are a short plane trip away. Ecuador is truly remarkable, and we are excited to share its wonders with you, while also doing interesting archaeology.

Students reside in Pambamarca, in the town of Cangahua, located in Cayambe County on the northeastern edge of Pichincha Province, about an hour north-northeast of Quito. Cangahua sits south of Cayambe and is a small, open, and enjoyable town.

Participants stay in a dormitory-style house behind the main church (‘Casa Comunal’) with electricity, running water, showers, kitchen, mess hall, and beds. Meals are prepared by two cooks hired annually, offering healthy and delicious food.

Students may also choose, at extra cost, to stay at Hacienda Guachalá – www.guachala.com.

All ages are welcome, from high school graduates to retirees. Students may proceed at their own pace.

The Pambamarca project area contains the largest concentration of pre-Columbian forts in the New World (Hyslop 1990). We have been working here since 2001 excavating and surveying at the forts.  We know from the Spanish chroniclers that the Inca Empire tried to conquer the Ecuadorian people beginning around 1490 and that the people of Ecuador put up a famous resistance which forced the Inca to construct fortresses over many years until finally the conquest ended in the murder of most of the Ecuadorian army at Lago Yaguarcocha or the Lake of Blood. The purpose of our study is to examine the sequence of occupation and activity in and around Pambamarca.  What we have found out so far is that

1. Evidence for warfare is everywhere
2. People built these sites at different times and for different purposes.
3. There are different kinds of sites in the Pambamarca complex, including castle-like pucara (Inca forts) and other non-military sites that seem to be more religious and less military.
4. There are roads connecting all the sites.
5. We need to learn so much more!

 Our work in 2026 will continue researching these amazing sites and expand our survey in the Andean highlands. Our aim is to document all of the sites and find out why so many forts were built in this critical geographic location. In addition, we hope to uncover the differences between the Inka and Cayambe warfare tactics. Finally, we will be trying to understand what made the Cayambe so successful at resisting the Inka when the rest of South America fell so quickly.

Student field work typically begins at a Spanish era colonial hacienda where we learn field techniques, and quickly move to the other sites for the rest of the field season. Plans in 2025 will include analysis of artifacts from excavations at important Cayambe sites and Inka fortresses. Preliminary survey and exploration of ancient road systems will continue into the Amazon basin.

Students are trained in laboratory analysis this summer. Our typical student this summer may be someone with previous experience in survey and excavation who would like to be in the lab for a few weeks, or you simply want to come to Ecuador and learn about archaeology and anthropology!  The project also utilizes Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to detect subsurface features and uses a Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze data, but this summer we will not have the GPR in country, although we are planning a 3D photogrammetry project that students will be involved in.

For too long archaeologists have been involving themselves in research without a coherent plan for using anthropology to work with the local peoples in different capacities. This summer we will be working closely with Ecuadorian community members who are interested in putting together a local museum.  Students who are interested in aspects of public archaeology will be working closely with the project directors and the community members to create a shared vision for a permanent installation within the town of Cangahua.  These are exciting times to be a part of the program.

All participants must commit to active and positive engagement in all program components. Students will earn 6 units of credit from Foothill College for successful completion of the program.  The classes you will be taking are:

• ANTH16L – Archaeology Laboratory Methods (1-unit) or
• ANTH70R – Independent Study (1-unit)

Both of these courses are fully transferrable to your universities.

The field program is broken down into different parts and everything will be very accelerated. The field and lab training portions of the program involve all the aspects of archaeology, preparing the student to operate in a field archaeology environment anywhere in the world. Benefiting from the over 100 years combined staff experience in teaching archaeology, each student is instructed in methods of site reconnaissance, surveying, excavation techniques, data recording, photography, and drawing. In the laboratory, students are guided through different aspects of artifact analysis, such as ceramic typology and stone tool production experiments.

A field journal will be covering every day in the field will be handed in by the student to the professors. The journal will cover the research being conducted and critically analyze the experience as it is ongoing. We find it is important for our students to reflect upon the daily rhythm of their lives. We will also require one or two blog posts during the trip.