Max Uhle y la arqueología del Ecuador: precursor. investigador y profesor

Abstract

This article outlines Max Uhle's archaeological research in the Andean and the Coastal regions of Ecuador, the numerous excavations and archaeological surveys done by him as well as his getting more and more convinced of his diffusionist point of view. The "father of Andean archaeology's" argumentation is based, above all, on the one hand on long distance trade of Spondylus shells that had been found frequently at Peruvian, Chilean and Ecuadorian sites, and on the other hand on rafting coastal waters on board of big "balsas" as it is reported by documentary sources from the conquest period. Certain stylistic elements had been interpreted by Uhle as beeing "mayoid" and he attempted to trace their way back through the Southern pan of Central America to Mesoamerica.