VLADIVOSTOK, October 21. /TASS/. Russian archeologists have discovered in Ecuador traces of an ancient culture dating back some 5,500 years, expedition head Alexander Popov said on Wednesday.

The team of experts from Moscow, Novosibirsk in Siberia and Vladivostok in the Far East unearthed ceramics, tools, shells, bones and two burials sites near the city of Monta, located on the Pacific Coast, Popov said.

"The artefacts will help analyze the origin of ceramics on the Pacific coast," he added. Russian archeologists have been involved in excavations in Ecuador for three years. Their purpose is to compare ancient cultures on different sides of the Pacific.

"Research aims to establish connections between ways of mankind’s adaptation to a changing environment in different parts of the world," Popov said. "We see that people invented ceramics approximately in the same period of time."

"Such comparative analysis has never been conducted, which makes our experiment unique," he said.