A team from the National Institute of Cultural Heritage of Ecuador (INPC) made public this Tuesday that objects and structures were found in the city of Riobambain the Andean center of the country, which currently stands on the ruins of a colonial enclave of the Spanish Empire buried by several earthquakes in the 18th century.
“The findings were discovered during the carrying out urban regeneration works“by the neighboring municipality of Colta, which was carrying out excavations to bury cables and repair sidewalks,” the INPC said in a statement.
After the first discoveries, INPC specialists carried out archaeological excavations on site and so far they have found “a paving of what would be the patio of the convent of religious community of the Jesuits“, in addition to “thirty meters of stone channels” essential for the distribution of drinking water in the city.
Remains of the Riobamba cobblestones.
null
Also “objects of great historical value” such as a stove and kitchen utensils, including spoons, cutlery and forks made of metal with colonial characteristics.
The ancient city of Riobamba, founded in 1575 in the plains of Colta, was buried by multiple earthquakes such as the one in 1797, when the Culca hill completely covered this city. It is one of the most disastrous earthquakes that this Andean country has experienced in its entire history.
Team of technicians with director Iovana Jaramillo on location.
null
The city of Riobamba had about 5,000 inhabitants, including nobles, commoners and mestizos. “From the growing number of their nobility There are only eight or ten people left.and about four hundred of other classes,” says a chronicle of the time. Officially, 12,293 deaths were recognized in the region, but colonial authorities’ documents acknowledge that there were countless missing persons from all castes.
The interim director of the INPC, Iovana Jaramillo, met with the mayor of Colta, Julio Guaminga, to coordinate actions to promote the search and rescue of archaeological finds, the institute added.
“time capsule”
The INPC statement said that the objects saved so far are temporarily in laboratory of a team of archaeologists from Colta, where they are being analyzed, but noted that they will then be handed over to the INPC for police custody.
However, he assured that later the municipality of Colta could request the archaeological heritage found for its preservation, safety and dissemination.
The INPC indicated that these types of remains “provide key information on a little-studied era” on “the colonial period during the decline of Spanish domination, that is to say more than 200 years of history hidden underground”.
Riobamba and the central Andean region of the country have suffered numerous earthquakes over the centuries. “This phenomenon has created a “time capsule”preserving the remains of the city’s colonial history. “Archaeological excavations have shown how survivors of an earthquake prior to the one in 1797 reused materials from destroyed buildings to build new homes,” the statement concluded.
