Santa Elena, Ecuador

Santa Elena is a town in southwestern Ecuador, and is the capital of both the province and the canton of the same name. Santa Elena, originally called Sumpa, is located on the Ecuadorian peninsula near the city of Guayaquil. It is regarded as the location of the most important and best documented archaeological site in the country, predominantly due to the discovery of the Lovers of Sumpa.History of the SiteIn 1977 Olaf Holm, the Director of the Anthropology Museum of the Central Bank of Ecuador, asked Karen E. Stothert to excavate this pre-ceramic site. Stothert and her team found evidence of Las Vegas, the first Ecuadorian culture. Las Vegas flourished from 8800-4600 BC along the Ecuadorian coast. Archaeologists found numerous artifacts and remains of homes and a garbage dump, but the biggest discovery was a cemetery of about 200 people. Among these remains were the bodies of the Lovers of Sumpa, or Los Amantes de Sumpa. They were found buried, and apparently embracing each other. There is much speculation as to why they died, including being stoned to death, but for most of the world it doesn't matter how they died so much as that they died and were buried together.