The Cara or Caranqui culture flourished in coastal

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, in what is now

Manabí Province Manabí () is a province in the Republic of Ecuador. Its capital is Portoviejo. The province is named after the Manabí people. Demographics Ethnic groups as of the Ecuadorian census of 2010: * Mestizo 69.7% * Montubio 19.2% * Afro-Ecuad ...

, in the first millennium CE.

History

In the 10th century AD, they followed the Esmeraldas River up to the high Andean valley of Caranqui. They were often at war with the neighboring Cayambi people. The Caranqui and their allies were defeated in battle along with the

Quitu The Quitu or Quillaco were Pre-Columbian era, Pre-Columbian indigenous peoples in Ecuador who founded Quito, which is the capital of present-day Ecuador.

, the

Cañari The Cañari (in Kichwa: Kañari) are an indigenous ethnic group traditionally inhabiting the territory of the modern provinces of Azuay and Cañar in Ecuador. They are descended from the independent pre-Columbian tribal confederation of the ...

, the Palta, and the other ethnic groups of the region by an army of Túpac Inca, the son of

Pachacuti Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, also called Pachacútec (), was the ninth Sapa Inca of the Chiefdom of Cusco, which he transformed into the Inca Empire (). Most archaeologists now believe that the famous Inca site of Machu Picchu was built as an ...

. They led a revolt against Huayna Capac along with the Cayambi. After the capture of their capital, they fled to a lake. The battle that followed was so brutal that the lake was renamed Yahuarcocha (blood lake). Huayna Cápac temporarily consolidated the region. In 1534 the Caranqui culture were conquered by the Spanish. They became extinct as a tribe chiefly from exposure to new European infectious diseases, which took a heavy toll in fatalities. In addition, the Spanish conquerors married Cara women. Their descendants continued to intermarry, producing the

mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...

population of the region who gradually became disconnected from their indigenous heritage. In the early 21st century, there was a major find of sophisticated tombs, dating to 800 CE, in the Florida neighborhood of Quito. They are 20 meters deep, and each holds the remains of a total of 10 individuals in three levels, accompanied by grave goods of textiles, carved pieces, and food and drink for the afterlife. The Museum of Florida opened in 2010 in the neighborhood to hold artifacts and interpretive material related to Quitu culture, including figures of a man and a woman dressed in traditional Quitu clothing. This however does not indicate a united political entity in the region and the site is considered a Quitu site. The local ceramics do not show unity among the different regions supposedly ruled by the shyris.

Kingdom of Quito

According to the Ecuadorian priest Juan de Velasco, they defeated the Quitu or Quilloces tribe, located in the valley of

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

, and set up a kingdom. The combined Quitu-Cara culture which was, according to de Velasco, known as the Shyris or Scyris civilization, would have thrived from 800 CE to the 1470s. De Velasco used as his source a lost work by

Marcos de Niza Marcos de Niza, Order of Friars Minor, OFM (or Marco da Nizza; 25 March 1558) was a Franciscan friar and missionary from the city of Nice in the Duchy of Savoy. Marcos led the first Spanish expedition to explore what is now the American Southw ...

, the existence of which has not been confirmed. According to the priest, more than four centuries under the kings, called ''shyris'', of the Cara, the Kingdom of Quito dominated much of the highlands of modern Ecuador. Several historians such as Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño, Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco, María Rostworowski, Raúl Porras Barrenechea, and Federico González Suárez have questioned the existence of such a Kingdom and suggested that it was a legendary pre-Hispanic account. No archeological evidence of the kingdom of Quito has been found.

Legacy

The

Caranqui language Caranqui, or Cara (Kara), is an extinct, probably Barbacoan languages, Barbacoan language of Ecuador. Caranqui was replaced by Quechua languages, Quechua, perhaps surviving as late as the 18th century. It seems in turn to have influenced Imbabu ...

is preserved in place names, such as the city of ''Carán'', and the martial term ''Shyri'', still in use in the Ecuadorean Army.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cara culture Prehistory of Ecuador Andean civilizations Pre-Columbian cultures