One of the earliest sedentary coastal societies in South America, the Las Vegas people of Ecuador's Santa Elena Peninsula practiced early plant domestication alongside hunting and fishing from roughly 8000 to 4600 BCE.
The Las Vegas culture of Ecuador's Santa Elena Peninsula disappeared around 4600 BCE, likely driven by rising sea levels that destroyed coastal mangrove ecosystems on which the population depended for food, with no evidence of human occupation on the peninsula for roughly 1,000 years afterward.
Comprehensive overview of South American prehistory that covers early coastal adaptations including Las Vegas and its role in Ecuador's pre-ceramic sequence.
Foundational reference for South American cultures; contextualizes early Ecuadorian coastal peoples within the continental record.
Las Vegas immediately precedes the Valdivia culture on the same coast; Meggers and Evans cover the transition from pre-ceramic Las Vegas to Valdivia directly. More focused than Moore 2014.