In 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
