The Tuncahuán Phase culture is centred in the central highlands of Ecuador, near the modern city of Riobamba, and is believed to date to 500 BC to AD 500. Very little archaeological research has been carried out in this region of Ecuador and there is still much to be learned of its prehistory. The Tuncahuán Phase was first described by Ecuadorian archaeologist Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño early in the 20th century, based on his excavation of five graves in a cemetery. All the graves, with the exception of one belonging to a child, contained pottery and copper grave goods.

Pottery from this phase is often decorated with white paint, red slip and negative painting in several different combinations. One Tuncahuán bowl in the SFU collection is a pedestal bowl, or competera, with a tall annular base supporting a simple, unrestricted bowl. The annular base has been decorated with cut-out sections, incision and cream slip. The bowl itself is cream slipped on the interior with red slip on the lip extending slightly down the exterior rim. Interestingly there is a clear hand print on the exterior of this bowl that would have been made by the potter when he or she picked up the bowl with a hand that had wet white slip on it.

With no excavations of Tuncahuán Phase living sites, archaeologists know little of the way of life of the people that produced this pottery.