A series of early Formative Period sites on the coast of Ecuador of c 2000 BC, known chiefly through ceramics - the distinctive Macalilla ceramic complex. Traded sherds found in both Valdivia C and Late Tutish-Canyno contexts suggest mid- to late 2nd millennium BC. Machalilla ceramics, in contrast to Valdivian, are painted (red banded and black-on-white) and figurines are rare and crudely made. Wattle-and-daub fragments in middens indicate that houses existed, but no foundations have been defined.