An Integration-Period indigenous culture of Ecuador's Guayas river basin (modern Los Ríos, Guayas and Manabí provinces), between the western Andean foothills and the coastal lowlands, known for varied ceramics decorated with serpent, owl and amphibian motifs. Identified by Spanish chroniclers with the ethnonym 'Chonos' -- an unrelated, coincidental name-match to the Chono canoe people of Chilean Patagonia already in this dataset.
Some of its traditions persisted well into the Spanish colonial period; its territory and descendant communities were absorbed into colonial and later Ecuadorian coastal society.
The dedicated monograph on the culture, verified in Open Library and the direct match for its name.
Reference volume with chapters on coastal Ecuadorian Integration-Period archaeology.