They are known for the construction of earthen mounds known as Tolas, ceramic crafts and especially metalworking, since they handled gold with great skill and were also the first artisans in the world to work with platinum.

[3] The Tumaco-La Tolita culture lived on the coasts of the present-day province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador and extended as far north as Buenaventura, in Colombia.

[1] The large number of rivers provided Tumaco-La Tolita people with excellent communication routes with the Andean highlands.

The German archaeologist Max Uhle visited the island in 1925[8] and published the first maps of the site, in which the Tolas that give name to the place can be seen.

[2] In the decades that followed, more exhaustive studies were carried out on this culture, although they were hevily influenced by the international border that divides the Tumaco-La Tolita territories.

[9] From the remains of the Tolita material culture, metallurgy and pottery are the ones that stand out the most, although there is also evidence of the use of stone, shells, horns, bone, wood, basketry, textiles, feathers, etc.

A large number of metallic masks and body ornaments such as beads, rings, diadems, bracelets, dental inlays, and even gold threads were made, which were presumably used to decorate clothing.

[10] The earliest evidence of the use of metals in the region comes from the archaeological site called Las Balsas, near the Islandof la Tolita, where a sheet of gold was found that was dated between 915 and 780 BC.

[12] The metal-smiths of the Tolita culture were the first in the world to work the platinum, at least 1,400 years before European blacksmiths, who did not use this metal until the 18th century.

The anthropomorphic figurines display clothing and body adornments, some carry musical instruments, others appear to be ill, show cranial deformation or portray elder people.

[13] Stone is scarce in the places that were occupied by the Tumaco-La Tolita culture, materials such as andesite and basalt were probably imported from the foothills of the Andean mountains.

[10] On the other hand, the existence of spinning tools such as spindle whorls and the figurines with representations of clothing show the manufacture of textiles.

The deeper channels that remain waterlogged year-round also serve as irrigation water reservoirs and attract fish and other animals that can be hunted.

[9] The only surviving evidence of the construction of houses or temples are postholes that were dug to anchor wooden poles that would have supported the roof of some building.

[9] In addition to the post holes, there are also models of houses or temples that seem to indicate construction with bahareque,[10] a technique for making walls that consists of covering with mud a skeleton of interwoven reeds.

[15] The first scholars of the Tumaco-La Tolita culture thought that its art was nothing more than the representation of the natural environment and daily life.

[16] The art historian Costanza di Capua proposed the hypothesis that the ritualistic collection of trophy heads was practiced by La Tolita people, and that these perhaps were offerings for a feline-anthropomorphic deity.

[18] But archaeologist María Fernanda Ugalde argued that there is not enough evidence to confirm this hypothesis, since, despite the fact that human skulls have been found separated from the body in Tumaco-La Tolita cemeteries, this phenomenon could be easily explained by the practice of secondary burial, which causes bones to not remain in their proper position within the skeleton.

[...] The scenes of beheading and obtaining trophy heads are frequent in the Andean area, especially in Peruvian cultures – Cerro Sechín, Cupisnique, Paracas, Nasca, Moche]; less implicitly in Chavín -, and its presence in Tolita iconography could respond to a diffusion of part of this religious-mythological baggage.

[9] Due to the number of burials that have been found on the Island of La Tolita, it is suspected that this place was a necropolis where people from all over the region were buried.

[9] Tumaco-La Tolita archaeological sites are mainly fields of canals and ridges used for cultivation or small towns with Tolas (mounds).

[9][10] The first inhabitants of the island settled around 600 BC., they belonged to the Chorrera culture, they built small hamlets scattered throughout the place.

According to the archaeologist Jean François Bouchard, the island was an important port in the times of the Tumaco-La Tolita culture, since it provides an easy access to all the rivers that flow into the Tumaco Bay.

The archaeologist interpreted the island as a colony of La Tolita whose main objective was the collection of gold on the shores of Tumaco.