Las Vegas culture (archaeology)

Las Vegas
	Location of the Las Vegas culture in Ecuador
Geographical range	Santa Elena Peninsula
Period	Archaic
Dates	c. 8000 – 4600 BCE
Type site	Site No. 80
Followed by	Valdivia culture

"Las Vegas culture" is the name given to many Archaic settlements which flourished between 8000 BCE and 4600 BCE near the coast of present-day Ecuador. The name comes from the location of the most prominent settlement, Site No. 80, near the Las Vegas River and now within the city of Santa Elena. The Las Vegas culture represents "an early, sedentary adjustment to an ecologically complex coastal environment."^[1]

The Las Vegas culture is important because it was one of the earliest cultures in South America to practice agriculture.

^ Stothert, Karen E. (July 1985). "The Preceramic Las Vegas Culture of Coastal Ecuador". American Antiquity. 50 (3). American Antiquity, Vol. 50, No. 3: 613–637. doi:10.2307/280325. JSTOR 280325. S2CID 162313695.

[1] Stothert, Karen E. (July 1985). "The Preceramic Las Vegas Culture of Coastal Ecuador". American Antiquity. 50 (3). American Antiquity, Vol. 50, No. 3: 613–637. doi:10.2307/280325. JSTOR 280325. S2CID 162313695.

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