The Quitu or Quillaco were

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

indigenous peoples in Ecuador The Indigenous peoples in Ecuador or Native Ecuadorians () are the groups of people who were present in what became Ecuador before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The term also includes their descendants from the time of the Spanish c ...

who founded

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 ...

, which is the capital of present-day

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 ...

."Quito."
''All Ecuador and More.'' 2009 (retrieved 3 May 2011) This people ruled the territory from 2000 BCE and persisted through the period known as the Regional Integration Period. They were overtaken by the invasion of the

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

. The Spanish invaded and conquered the center in 1534. The Quitu occupied an area dominated by mountains, settling largely in the valleys. About 800 CE, they created three-level, 20-meter deep tombs as part of funerary centers on the plateau. The bodies were accompanied by highly refined grave goods of textiles, shells and metals, as well as drink and food for the afterlife. These tombs were discovered in the Florida neighborhood of Quito, and in 2010 the Museum of Florida opened to display many of their treasures.

History

The Quitu lived in an area surrounded by mountains, especially the massif formed by the Guagua and Ruco Pichincha volcanoes. The mountains were sacred to them. They established their burial or funeral centers on the plateau, and had most of their villages in the valleys. When they occupied this area, they used the Iñaquito lagoon. (In the 20th century, this was filled in and developed for an airport serving Quito.) Around 1470 they were conquered by

Topa Inca Yupanqui Topa Inca Yupanqui or Túpac Inca Yupanqui (), also Topa Inga Yupangui, erroneously translated as "noble Inca accountant" (before 14711493) was the tenth Sapa Inca (1471–1493) of the Inca Empire, fifth of the Hanan dynasty. His father was Pac ...

, who at the time was a general of his father

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 ...

. Later, under the reign of

Huayna Capac Huayna Capac (; Cuzco Quechua: ''Wayna Qhapaq'' ) (before 14931527) was the third Sapa Inca of Tawantinsuyu, the Inca Empire. He was the son of and successor to Túpac Inca Yupanqui,Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro; 2015, originally published in Sp ...

, they revolted alongside the Cayambis, the Caranquis, the Pastos and the other ethnic groups of the far north. However the revolt was put down by the Inca. In the early 21st century a large Quitu funerary and ceremonial area was excavated in Quito. Archeologist Holguer Jara said this delay protected their artifacts for centuries from grave robbers, who are known to have depleted many other cultures of their valuable archeological remains, especially artifacts made of gold. The Quitu are believed to have endured as a people during a period regional states, known as the late intermediate, long before the

conquered the territory or the Spanish explorers arrived in the early 16th century to conquer the city. The Quitu traded with the

Yumbo Yumbo is a small, industrial city and municipality in western Colombia. It is located in the Valle del Cauca Department, just north of Cali. In 2020, the municipality had a population of approximately 110,000. History Modern Yumbo was founded ...

, a tribe that lived northwest of this area. The Yumbo had networks that reached from the Andes west to the coast. The Quitu grave goods showed that they had acquired valuable

Spondylus ''Spondylus'' is a genus of bivalve molluscs, the only genus in the family Spondylidae and subfamily Spondylinae. They are known in English as spiny oysters or thorny oysters (although they are not, in fact, true oysters, but are related to sc ...

shells. These were harvested by the Manta people in what are now the coastal provinces of Manabí and Santa Elena. The shells were highly valued by Native Americans and exported throughout the trading networks of South America, as they have been found in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and even present-day Mexico. Based on their use of these shells associated with religious rituals, the Quitu were among the many peoples who gave them sacred meaning. The people made art and used wooden instruments for their music. In 2010, an area of numerous 20-meter deep, three-level Quitu tombs was discovered in Quito, dating to about 800CE. The tombs had three levels, with multiple burials on each level: four bodies on the lowest, and six on each of the next two levels. Both men and women were buried in a squatting position, wrapped in cloth and with decorated ponchos, some featuring refined, carved

shells, which were acquired by Quitu trade from the Manta culture along the Pacific coast. The Museum of Florida has been developed here to display and interpret artifacts from the tombs. It is named after the neighborhood in which the tombs were found. The museum includes constructed figures of a Quitu man and woman (the latter's face was created by forensic techniques from a skull excavated at the site.) The woman wears clothing as found in the tombs: "a poncho covered with small buttons carved from Spondylus shell and snails, as well as silverware such as earrings, pins, necklaces, hunting darts and rattles". The Quitu were a festive people, and rattles were a way for women to make music as they walked.

Organization

Excavations of tombs show the Quitu believed in an afterlife. Grave goods, including drink and food, were buried with them for their use in the afterlife. Essentially the Quitu were an agricultural people, seen as a "pueblo alegre y festivo" (happy and festive people). They are not known for any association with the Peruvian town of

Iquitos Iquitos (; ) is the capital city of Peru's Maynas Province, Peru, Maynas Province and Loreto Region. It is the largest metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon, east of the Andes, as well as the List of cities in Peru, ninth-most populous city in Peru ...

, east of the mountains and in the Amazonian basin.

Kingdom of Quito

In the 21st century archeological evidence had been found associated with this people. This however does not confirm the existence of the semi-legendary kingdom of Quito and is only archeological evidence for an independent Quitu culture with no united political entity in the region. According to the Spanish Jesuit missionary and historian

Juan de Velasco Juan de Velasco y Pérez Petroche (1727–1792) was an 18th-century Jesuit priest, historian, and professor of philosophy and theology from the Royal Audience of Quito. He was born in Riobamba to Juan de Velasco y López de Moncayo and to M ...

, in his book, ''Historia del Reino de Quito en la América meridional'' (1789), the Quitu were conquered by said kingdom of Quito around 980 CE. He also referred to this people as Scyris, and said they may have been related to the Inca. He cited three lost documents as his sources, the existence of which has not been confirmed: "Las dos líneas de los Incas y de los Scyris, señores del Cuzco, y del Quito," by Fray Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan who accompanied Sebastián Benalcázar's conquest of Quito in 1533; "Las antigüedades del Perú," by Melchor Bravo de Saravia, an oidor (judge) of Lima; and "Guerras civiles del Inca Atahualpa con su hermano Atoco, llamado comúnmente Huáscar-Inca," by Jacinto Collahuaso, an eighteenth-century

cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

of Ibarra (north of Quito). Several historians such as

Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño (11 December 1890 – 17 August 1950) was an Ecuadorian historian, archeologist, and politician. He was the mayor of the city of Quito (the capital of Ecuador) from 1946 to 1948. He was a member of the Ecuadorian parlia ...

and

Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco (October 12, 1908 – May 1, 1993), born Alfredo Pareja y Díez Canseco, was an Ecuadorian novelist, essayist, journalist, historian and diplomat. An innovator of the 20th-century Latin American novel, he was a foundi ...

contest that the Scyris existed and that they were related to the Inca. To some the kingdom of Quito is a legendary, pre-Hispanic kingdom to which people could refer for dreams of former glory. There is no archeological evidence indicating any kind of cultural and political unity, the sites found rather hinting at regional states.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quito Culture Quito Canton Prehistory of Ecuador Pre-Columbian cultures 2nd-millennium BC establishments in Ecuador 1524 disestablishments in South America States and territories established in the 2nd millennium BC States and territories disestablished in 1524

History

Organization

Kingdom of Quito

See also

References