Early village and ceremonial-mound site in Ecuador's Chanduy Valley, representing a distinct transitional culture/phase that bridges the earlier Las Vegas culture and the following Valdivia culture on Ecuador's coast.
By around 2500 BC the settlement had grown into a large town fully within the Valdivia cultural sphere (population ~1,250, two plazas, two ceremonial mounds); its earlier, distinct 'Real Alto phase' identity gave way to full Valdivia material culture.
Covers the Las Vegas-Real Alto-Valdivia sequence on the Santa Elena coast in comparative Formative-period context.