The origins of Valdivia culture may be found outside of Ecuador’s coasts. Betty Meggers, Clifford Evans and Emilio Estrada found pottery styles similar to the Valdivian pottery among the ancient Jomon culture on the island of Kyushu, just south of Honshu the main island of Japan. The similarities of the varieties of techniques led Ms. Meggers and her team to deduce a trans-Pacific origin for one of the first ceramics in America.

The Valdivia lived in a community that built its houses in a circle or oval around a central plaza (Lathrop 45). Their life was generally sedentary and they lived off farming and fishing, though occasionally they went hunting for the deer that lived on the peninsula. It is very likely that specific communities, or parts of communities specialized in either hunting, or fishing, or agriculture of corn, kidney beans, cassava, and cotton plants. They used the cotton to make their clothes.

Their pottery initially was rough and practical, and in time became more splendid, delicate and large with a higher quality of workmanship. They generally used red and gray colors; and the polished dark red pottery is the most characteristic of the Valdivia period. In their ceramics and stone works, the Valdivia culture shows a progression from the most simple to much more complicated works.

The trademark Valdivia piece is the "Venus" of Valdivia: feminine ceramic figures rarely possessing arms but with two pointed legs. It is likely that the "Venuses" were used in a variety of unknown rituals of fertility or good fortune, after which the doll was broken (usually at the neck and/or midsection) and the parts buried separately. Although there have been figurines found whole, they are usually found with burials, which would presume a different use of the "Venus." The "Venus" of Valdivia likely represented actual people, as each figurine is individual and unique, as can be seen by the hairstyles. Though male figurines are found, they are relatively rare in comparison with the "Venus." This means that woman held an important place in Valdivian society.

Valdivian artists also worked in stone, making bowls of the finest quality, and mortars that resemble animals. They also worked seashells and probably wood as well. Some of these mortars were used to mash up or mix the leaves of the coca plant with other hallucinogenic plants, which was then used by the shamans in their rituals to attain high levels of ecstasies, from which they could gain hidden information about life and the universe.

As for their final end, it does not appear that they were absorbed or changed into another culture, as there are no transition pieces from Valdivia to another culture, either in ceramic or stone. It is possible that their numbers dwindled or that they simply left the coasts for a more prosperous living environment; but where they went is a mystery.