Between 400 BCE and 500 CE, one of the earliest major cultures of Colombia emerged among the swampy mangroves that cover five hundred kilometers of Pacific coastline along southern Colombia and northern Ecuador. Now referred to as Tumaco-La Tolita, their ceramics are remarkable for the realism of expression, including old age and illness. Perhaps more remarkably, they are the only culture in the ancient world to isolate and work platinum. 
  
In a setting of extremes—floods alternating with drought—the people of Tumaco-La Tolita were masters of sustainable landscape modification and management. They constructed widespread systems of ditches and raised fields (canal-camellónes) and navigation pathways that facilitated year-round agricultural production, enriching not only plant resources but also animals such as fish and water birds. In addition to food plants, it is likely that they cultivated medicinal plants and timber trees.