Upano — Huapula Southern Platform at Sangay South
Valle del Upano Huapula · Upano Huapula South Mound Complex · Kilimope South Platform
Formative to Regional Development (500 BCE–1400 CE)·Kilamope (Upano) culture; Sangay phase Huapula·🇪🇨 Morona-Santiago Province, Upano Valley southern terrace, Huapula River–Upano confluence, Sangay foothills, Ecuador
About
About Upano — Huapula Southern Platform at Sangay South
2 km² of rectilinear platforms under montane forest on the eastern Andean flank. 9 km² with 120 raised fields 12 m wide). 400 CE Sangay eruption tephra burying the Pik? The confluence platform served as southern gate controlling southern Upano entry via the Huapula.
Why it mattersSouthern gate of earliest Amazonian urbanism by 1000 years; Sangay tephra chronostratigraphy and drained-field agronomy on Andean–Amazon ecotone.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Whether 400 CE collapse was volcanic, climatic or social
- 02Drained fields salinity vs Upano black soil management
Theories
- 01Huapula southern platform handled external Sangay trade, explaining larger plazas vs central Upano residential mounds
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.500 BCE–600 CE Kilamope–Upano primary; 800–1400 CE Sangay reuse
- Period
- Formative to Regional Development (500 BCE–1400 CE)
- Culture
- Kilamope (Upano) culture; Sangay phase Huapula
- Builders
- Upano–Kilamope agrarian urbanists
- Purpose
- Southern gateway platform town controlling Sangay foothill entry with agrarian hinterland drained fields
- Abandoned
- c.600 CE Kilamope–Upano abandonment (Sangay eruption?); Sangay phase fades 1400 CE
- Rediscovered
- 1996 Rostain survey; 2015–2024 CNRS LiDAR; published Jan 2024 Science
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
500 BCE
Kilamope platforms first built on Huapula terrace
100 BCE
Urban dendritic expansion and causeways cut
c.400 CE
Sangay eruption tephra buries Huapula fields; Kilamope collapse
Jan 2024
Rostain et al. Science lidar publication reveals urban system
On the ground
Structures & features
2.1425° S · 78.0185° W · 580 m · 4 mapped features
Huapula Southern Plaza-Mound Block
plaza complex22 mounds around four 30×45 m plazas with causeways
2.1428° S · 78.0182° WDrained Field Block (0.9 km²)
field system120 raised fields 12 m wide on Huapula drained alluvium
2.1420° S · 78.0190° WSangay Tephra Horizon (400 CE)
geological marker15 cm Sangay eruption tephra sealing Kilamope fields
2.1425° S · 78.0185° WCauseway to Central Upano
causeway9 m causway 1.2 km north linking Huapula gate to Copueno centre
2.1400° S · 78.0200° W