Guancavilca

The Guancavilca were the maritime people of the southern Ecuadorian coast, holders of the Santa Elena peninsula, the Gulf of Guayaquil and Puná Island from about 600, heirs to the older Guangala culture of the region.

They farmed the arid lowlands but were above all seafarers: their great balsa rafts carried Spondylus shells, cotton cloth and goldwork as far as Mesoamerica, Peru and Chile, while copper axe-money served as currency at home. They carved stone monoliths for rain and fertility cults, among them the god San Biritute. Their language was never documented and remains unclassified.

Like the Manta to their north they avoided Inca conquest, and the first Spaniards met them as independent chiefdoms in the 1530s, until the captains defeated them. Tradition links the name of Guayaquil, built on their shore, to the chief Guayas and his wife Quil.