Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
The present study identifies settlement patterns of the Manteño culture within the cloud forest of
southern Manabí by surveying, recording and analyzing the stone architecture found within the drainage
basin of the Las Tusas River, Ecuador. The statistical methods used were: Triangulated Irregular Networks
or TIN (for topography interpretations), K-means (to determine natural groups for structures based on their
dimensions, shape, and wall thickness), Ripley’s K (to determine spatial nature of these groups) and Kernel
Density (to visualize their spatial organization). The cloud forest ecotone of southern Manabí was an
anthropogenic landscape during the late Integration period. The alluvial valleys of the upper Rio Blanco
drainage basin do not represent a hinterland or a periphery occupation but a series of Manteño nucleated
settlements raised on terraces and interconnected by strings of linear settlements and dispersed settlements
throughout the rugged terrain of this landscape.
southern Manabí by surveying, recording and analyzing the stone architecture found within the drainage
basin of the Las Tusas River, Ecuador. The statistical methods used were: Triangulated Irregular Networks
or TIN (for topography interpretations), K-means (to determine natural groups for structures based on their
dimensions, shape, and wall thickness), Ripley’s K (to determine spatial nature of these groups) and Kernel
Density (to visualize their spatial organization). The cloud forest ecotone of southern Manabí was an
anthropogenic landscape during the late Integration period. The alluvial valleys of the upper Rio Blanco
drainage basin do not represent a hinterland or a periphery occupation but a series of Manteño nucleated
settlements raised on terraces and interconnected by strings of linear settlements and dispersed settlements
throughout the rugged terrain of this landscape.
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