San Agustin Archaeological Park. Guidebook.

8/6/2019 San Agustin Archaeological Park. Guidebook.

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San AgustnNational Archaeological Park

GuidebookEnglish


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Photo: Mesita A, Western Mound, San Agustn.


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Diego Herrera GmezGeneral Director

Vctor Gonzlez FernndezTexts and Maps

Carlo Emilio PiazziniScientifc Subdirector

Mabel Paola LpezHead o Publications

Tiza Orin EditoresText and style editing, Design and Diagramming

ICANH ArchivePhotographs

Anthropomorphic statue N. 289, Alto de Las Piedras site.Cover Photography

1st Edition, May 2011ISBN 978-958-8181-72-1

Instituto Colombiano de Antropologa e Historia, 2011Calle 12 No. 2-41 Bogot D.C.

Tel: (57-1) 5619600 Fax: ext. 144www.icanh.gov.co

All rights reserved. This publication cannot be reproduced as a whole or partlyby anyinvented or to be invented means, without previous written permission o the ICANH.

Printed in Colombia by Imprenta Nacional de Colombia.


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San AgustnNational Archaeological Park

GuidebookEnglish


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hoto: Fuente de Lavapatas site.


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Contents

Introduction 7

1 Location 92 The San Agustn Region Today 11

3 The Prehispanic Sequence 13 The Archaic Period 14 The Formative Period 15 The Regional Classic Period 17

The Statuary 18 The Recent Period 22

4 Main Archeological Sites 24Las Mesitas 25

5 Other Sites in the Municipality o San Agustn 34El Purutal-La Pelota 34Uyumbe 34El Tabor 36Quebradillas 37El Jabn 37El Tabln 38

La Chaquira 396 Sites located in the Municipality o Isnos 40

Alto de los dolos 40Alto de las Piedras 43

7 The National ArcheologicalPark o San Agustn and its Protection 44

8. General Recommendations 46

Bibliography 47


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hoto: Statue 25, Mesita B site, San Agustn.


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San Agustn / National Archaeological Park / Guidebook | 7

Figure 1.Map o Colombia

showing thelocation o the San

Agustn region inthe Southwest othe country and

other archeologicalzones.

Introduction

The greatest complex o megalithic monuments o pre-Co-

lumbian America is made up o a group o archeologicalsites dispersed on a broad region in the upper valley o the

Magdalena River, in the Colombian Southwest, known as the Archeologi-

cal Zone o San Agustn (gure 1). Recognized by Unesco in 1995 as World

Heritage, San Agustn symbolizes the ability o pre-Columbian societies


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8 | Instituto Colombiano de Antropologa e Historia, icanh

o northern South America to create and express, especially through

monolithic sculptures, earth mounds and unerary corridors, their singu-

lar social organization and worldview.

The rst written descriptions o the monuments were made at the

end o the 17th century by the chronicler Fray Juan de Santa Gertrudis

(1970). From 1913 on (Preuss, 1931), the region has been intensively stud-

ied by archeologists interested in a better understanding o the monumen-

tality o these graves and the importance o these kinds o commemorative

elements or the development o politically complex societies or chiedoms

(cacicazgos). Research on San Agustn, one o the rst complex societies inNorthern South America, is o great importance to understand the develop-

ment o political organizations, a central issue or anthropological theory.

In 1931, Law 103 ordered the creation o the Archeological Park

and an oce, Servicio Arqueolgico Nacional, within the Ministerio de

Educacin, in charge o research and preservation at the Park. Since then,

and thanks to the interest o the national and international public and

the continuous State investment in studying, protecting and promoting

the cultural heritage located there, the zone o San Agustn is one o the

best known archeological zones o Northern South America and, prob-

ably, the most representative o the archeological sites o the Colombian

cultural heritage.

The Instituto Colombiano de Antropologa e Historia, ICANH, a na-

tional authority in archeological matters, is directly responsible or re-

search and protection o the archeological heritage and manages the

National Park o San Agustn, aiming, through the display in situ (gure 2)o diverse kinds o archeological evidence, to promote knowledge o this

singular culture and o cultural diversity in general. Every year, more than

60,000 people rom various parts o Colombia and rom other countries

have the opportunity to appreciate the material remains o an enigmatic

and already disappeared culture that let us an important legacy about the

varied possible orms o social organization and about the importance o

religion and the ideas o the death and lie or ancient cultures.


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Figure 2.Funerary

monument o theRegional Classic

Period. Mesita B, SanAgustn.

1. Location

T

he Archeological Park o San Agustn is located at the oot-

hills o the Colombian Massi, in terrains that are today part

o the municipalities o San Agustn and Isnos, at both sideso the Magdalena River between the Central and Oriental Ranges, in the

southern part o the Department o Huila, approximately at Latitude 153

North and Longitude 7618 West, with elevations varying rom 1500 to

2000 MASL.

Administratively, it is made up o a series o disperse properties

owned by the ICANH (gure 3) that were especially delimited as to in-

clude the most important concentration o unerary mounds and statuary


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o the Regional Classic Period (1-900 A.D.) o the San Agustn culture (Dren-

nan et al. 2000).

Access to the Park is by road rom Bogot (nine hours approxi-

mately) or rom Neiva (our hours approximately) where domestic ights

arrive rom Bogot, Puerto Ass or Florencia, in the Benito Salas airport

(NVA). It is also possible to get there by road rom Pasto, through Mo-

coa (10 hours approximately), and there is a dirt and tough road rom

Popayn (10 hours at least).

Figure 3.Map o the AltoMagdalena showingthe ArcheologicalPark o San Agustnsites.


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Oces o the National Archeological Park o San Agustn are locat-

ed at three sites: Mesitas, in the Municipality o San Agustn; Alto de los

dolos and Alto de Las Piedras in the Municipality o Isnos. The biggestproperty, near the Mesitas oce, covers 80 ha and is located 2 km west

o the town o San Agustn, where hotels and other tourist services are

concentrated. To access the Alto de los dolos site (13 hectares), urther

north, a road 18 km long rom San Agustn and 8 km long rom Isnos, can

be used. The Alto de las Piedras site (11 hectares) is located even urther

north, 9 km by road rom Isnos.

Besides the archeological sites, the region ofers to the visitor a greatvariety o ecological niches with exuberant vegetation and wild auna, sur-

rounded by a rugged topography o deep canyons, wateralls and water

rapids.

2. The San AgustnRegion Today

The archeological zone o San Agustn has an average eleva-

tion o 1800 MASL, 20 C temperature and an annual pre-

cipitation o 1500 mm. The regions temperature depends

strongly on elevation over the sea level and varies very little through-

out the year. Weather is varied and the ora and auna very diverse be-cause the zone has an uneven relie that produces great vertical ecological

variations.

The rich soils o volcanic origin as well as the varied climate and the

high humidity that characterize the region present obvious advantages

or agriculture that generally does not require irrigation or earthworks, ex-

cept in the plains o the alluvial valley, where mechanized assistance is

needed.


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The municipalities o San Agustn and Isnos have areas o 1310 and

361 km2, respectively, with current populations o 27,500 and 23,400 in-

habitants, and 70-75% people living in rural zones with densities between20 and 40 inhabitants per km2. This population is dedicated mostly to agri-

cultural activities being cofee and sugar cane the main crops today.

This population has autochthonous indigenous roots in southern Hu-

ila and also in the neighboring regions o Nario and Cauca, although it

has historically been composed by migrations rom diferent zones at difer-

ent times. The ancient pre-Columbian inhabitants that built the stone mon-

uments had already abandoned the area by the 14th and15th centuries,so the current population does not have a direct connection with the San

Agustn cultural tradition. Most o the modern population has arrived in the

last decades as part o an important wave o people coming to this region,

which nowadays ofers some economic opportunities. The language used

is almost exclusively the Spanish and the predominant religion is Catholic,

in spite o the existence o Christian Protestants and other religious groups.

There are indigenous reservations recently established in the zone, ormed

by amilies that come rom the Department o Cauca and that identiy them-selves as part o the Yanacona ethnic group, originally rom Per and Bolivia

during the Conquest and Colony (Zambrano, 1993).

Part o the population o San Agustn and Isnos benets directly

rom cultural tourism, that also contributes, although indirectly, to the

economy o the whole region o southern Huila. San Agustn is known as

the Archeological Capital o Colombia and even though the economic e-

ect o tourism is dicult to assess with the available data, its importance

is indisputable. Directly, tourism employs guides, transporters, direct and

indirect staf at the archeological parks, and the personnel o hotels, ac-

commodations, restaurants, shops and crat actories. Cratworks are an

important income source or a group o people that is dedicated, espe-

cially, to manuacturing stone and ceramic replicas o archeological pieces

and also a wide variety o objects on various materials.


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Aside rom the archeological interest, southern Department o Hui-

la has also other attractions or visitors, and among them we can highlight

the wateralls at Santo de Bordones and Salto de Montio in Isnos, and theriver gorge at the Estrecho del Magdalena in San Agustn, the Cueva de los

Gucharos Natural Park in the Municipality o Acevedo and the Purac Na-

tional Park that includes areas o Isnos, San Agustn, La Argentina, La Plata

and Saladoblanco.

3. The Prehispanic Sequence

The archeological research o the region has made advances

in several topics, but a matter o basic importance is chronol-

ogy, that has allowed organization o the material remains o

the regions societies in several historic periods in order to better charac-

terize their evolution and to permit comparison o the particular organi-

zation in each period o time. The combination o radiocarbon dating o

organic samples (wood, bone and other carbonized remains) that were

associated to stone and ceramic artiacts, with the study o the stylistic

change o artiacts in many stratigraphic excavations, has allowed to clear-

ly identiy the periods o time in which certain decoration styles and arti-

acts were used, especially in ceramic pots.

The identication o the chronological organization o various kinds

o ceramics is an important tool or dating the regions sites and supportsthe analysis o other archeological aspects, since in almost all the sites

there are broken ceramic sherds that were discarded during the occupa-

tion and let us know, with great condence, in which periods and places

the activities were developed.

The regions chronology has evolved more accurately or two con-

secutive periods ater the adoption o ceramic technology; they are called

or this zone Formative and Regional Classic (gure 4). The immediately pre-

vious period, the Archaic, still does not have any chronological indicators.


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The current state o the chronology is the result o the gradual ac-

cumulation o inormation recovered by several archeologists that study

particular aspects and it has improved with every new research.

For more than ten years, Archeology publications had diferent

names or the Periods and their initial and nal dates, which reect knowl-

edge at the time; nevertheless, in spite o these changes, the basic chrono-

logical organization has not been drastically modied.

The Archaic Period Though there is little evidence about the initial human occupa-

tion in the Upper Magdalena, it is supposed to start during the Archa-

ic Period, around the ourth millennium B.C. or even beore, when the

Figure 4.Ceramic chronologyor the AltoMagdalena region(Gonzlez, 2007).


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hunter-gatherer societies would have had an easy access rom the north-

ern Magdalena River Valley. Archeologist Gonzalo Correal (1974) ound in

Palermo, northern Huila, lithic artiacts that are similar to those ound in thepreceramic sites located urther north in the same valley. There is a radi-

ocarbon date o 3300120 B.C. (Duque Gmez and Cubillos, 1988, p. 76)

associated to a burner but with no diagnostic artiacts, at the Lavapatas

site.

The lack o inormation does not allow to say much about this pe-

riod, but any population in the zone was, with no doubt, very disperse and

small. In other parts o the Colombian Southwest the sites o the periodshow that they already had various crops that complemented their diet

which was basically o wild origin. The societies were organized in small

groups or bands o 15-25 people that requently moved their camps and

exploited wild and domesticated resources with a technology o stone

and organic raw materials (bone, shell, wood, bers). Characteristic o this

period are the polished stone axes with handle o the Calima Valley, small

arrowheads carved in hard stone and small mortars or millstones identi-

ed in the zone o Popayn and Valle del Cauca. At the end o this periodthere was a shit towards sedentarism in the settlement pattern and the

ceramic technology was adopted.

The Formative Period

For the Formative 1 Period (1000 BC- 600 BC), almost all the region

contains remains o a sedentary occupation, with disperse settlementsthat tended to choose the ertile agricultural lands, located between 1500

and 2000 MASL, and where several kinds o crops were cultivated, such as

corn, beans, quinua, manioc and yam (Quattrin, 2001).

As a result o intensive research, we know that during all the Form-

ative Period (1000 BC-1 AD), the inhabitants o the Upper Magdalena re-

gion buried their dead in shat tombs with lateral chambers dug near their

households, where they placed the mortal remains on the oor with grave


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goods that included ceramic pots (gure 5) and utilitarian stone artiacts

(Drennan, 1995). The archaeologists have identied three sub-periods:

Formative 1, 2 and 3, among which gradual shits in the styles and decora-tion can be appreciated, allowing the study o change in other aspects, or

example, in demographics and economic organization.

The population increased gradually, more strongly between Form-

ative 1 and Formative 2, with smaller change into Formative 3. Since the

beginning o occupation, this population started to concentrate in some

zones o the region that would continue to be demographic centers, but total

regional population never reached levels high enough to drastically trans-orm the natural vegetation which, according to pollen analysis continued

to have important patches o native orest.

The Formative Period economy was organized without an appar-

ent centralization, without ood exchange systems nor specialization o

production, being basically sel-sucient, with independent households,

ormed by nuclear amilies that located their residency within the areas

Figure 5.Funerary urn o theFormative 2 period(600-300 BC).


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o cultivation and economic exploitation o wild products, which were an

important part o the diet during this period (Quattrin, 2001).

During the Formative Period the political organization was that o

independent chiedoms, each one composed by some 200 amilies dis-

persed around a denser center where some 30 amilies were settled with

shorter distance between them. There were no villages strictly speaking,

because even at the chiedom centers, households were spatially sepa-

rated and the central communities did not even include 200 inhabitants,

much less than the limit o 500 people traditionally used to classiy smaller

villages. So, the settlement patterns were strictly rural and disperse.

The Regional Classic Period

During this period (1-900 AD) the demographic density contin-

ued to increase and population concentrations were consolidated. Even

though they did not constitute villages or towns, they were communi-

ties relatively dense that also contained ceremonial centers o political im-

portance. Great earth mounds were built to cover unerary dolmens with

large slabs; each mound holding the remains o an important person.

Stone statues o mythological beings signaled the tombs. In spite o

very impressive unerary architecture, the Regional Classic tombs had very

ew oferings and only in ew cases ne objects like pendants o pure gold.

This period is characterized or having relatively crude, poorly decorated

ceramics, a very elaborate and technologically complex goldwork (gure 6)

and the amous monumental statues.

The economy was similar to the one o the Formative Period and al-

though part time specialists in crat production within the chiedom cent-

ers have been identied, the production was still organized within amily

lines, with very limited regional exchange systems, weak ormalization o

crat production and no evidence whatsoever o political control over the

production.


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The political organization was that o strong independent chie-

doms, perhaps in active competence, that gathered each one some 600

amilies dispersed in territories o about 100 km2 and that participated

with some requency in ceremonies at their political and unerary centers

(Gonzlez, 2007).

The Statuary

The San Agustn region is well known or the prehispanic sculptures

that inhabitants made during the Regional Classic Period. In the statues,

made o hard stones o volcanic origin, there is evidence o the develop-

ment not only o crating techniques, but o a complex o belies expressedin them. The statuary shows various themes, most o them with an un-

known meaning or us but many with an evident religious character.

The iconographic study o the statues has allowed nding similari-

ties among the group o expressive elements o the sculptures and the

ritual activities o indigenous contemporary groups. For example, some

anthropologists have suggested that certain themes o the statuary allude

to shamanic practices: beings with eathered crowns or birds over their

Figure 6.Laminar nose ringo the Regional

Classic period.Currently lost(Stolen in 2008).


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oreheads can represent the shamanic ight o healing or communication

with spirits. Anthropomorphic statues that seem covered by eline skin or

that include a mix o animal and anthropomorphic eatures (gures 7 and 8)suggest the ability o transormation o the character into another being.

Not all the statues are anthropozoomorphic, some o them are exclusively

anthropomorphic representations (gure 9) and others exclusively zoomor-

phic (gure 10), and in any case the represented themes in almost all the

earth mounds probably express the reunion o natural powers under the

control o beings o vast importance.

Usually, the statues are part o burial sets that includes a unerarymound inside which the dead body was placed over slabs or in a stone

sarcophagus. Processional paths were constructed to give access to the

Figure 7.Anthropozoomorphic

statue (N. 262) withshield and monkey

staf. Mound I, Alto delos dolos, Isnos.


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articially attened areas where some statues were located around the u-

nerary mounds. Other statues were buried inside the mounds, probably

as oferings. Even though there is a variation in the unerary architecture,

there is a requently repeated pattern that consists o a huge statue ac-

companied by two smaller ones, one at each side (gure 7) and behindthem there was, constructed in stone slabs, a chamber that contained the

sarcophagus. Although the specic meaning o all the representations is

unknown, we have to assume that they expressed a strong association be-

tween religious aspects and the buried individuals in the tombs that were

decorated with the statues.

Considering the monuments distribution around relatively at are-

as, the expression o the social importance o the buried individuals surely

Figure 8.Largeanthropozoomorcstatue (N. 258) withnecklace. Centralembankment, Altode los dolos, Isnos.


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Figure 9.Anthropomorphic

statue (N. 296) withnecklace and hat.

Alto de las Piedras,Isnos.

happened in ceremonies that gathered the community and commemo-

rated the death o great leaders. The archeological data obtained in tombs

and residential areas suggest that these activities were important enough

to promote the social basis o the political power o the elites that de-

served this unerary treatment. Also, these elites beyond having a specialrelationship with supernatural orces, surely produced and possessed the

esoteric knowledge that granted them a central place among their peers.


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The Recent Period

Towards 900 A.D. the ceramic styles shited again and the monu-

mental tombs with statuary were not constructed anymore. However, inthis period, named just Recent (900-1350 A.D.), the population increased

and became even more centralized, maintaining however the rural and

disperse residential pattern. The systems o drainage channels and earth-

works (gure 11) indicate that agriculture was intensied to eed a more

and more dense population (Snchez, 2005), and there are some larger

households (Duque and Cubillos, 1981), that could reect an economic

diference between amilies, that did not exist beore.

Figure 10.Zoomorphicstatue (N. 22)owl or eagle withsnake. Mesita B, SanAgustn.


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The political organization o the Recent Period was more central-

ized and incorporated larger polities or chiedoms, than in the previous

periods. Each one o those political units was ormed by several thousandamilies. However, the most signicant change that has been detected is

that the basis o power in these units sufered evident transormations

and that unerary ceremonies and associated monuments do not longer

appear as a central element o the political organization. These shits and

the notorious intensication o the agriculture, has led to propose or this

period, in contrast with ormer times, that the economic organization was

an element o political importance (Drennan, 2000). It seems that the re-

gion was abandoned or unknown reasons beore 1530 AD.

The prehispanic sequence or this region has provided crucial em-

piric evidence to understand the development o politically complex so-

cieties and or constructing adequate theoretical models or explaining

their cultural evolution. The region is still being studied and the sites pres-

ervation or uture investigation is an important unction o the ICANH, the

authorities o the Department o Huila and o the Municipalities o Isnos

and San Agustn.

Figure 11.Drainage channels

or intensiveagriculture o the

Recent Period in LaMarquesa, Isnos.


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4. Main Archeological

Sites

In all the region o the Upper Magdalena there are disperse ar-

cheological sites o the various prehispanic periods. For example,

archaeological surveys o an area o 300 km2 encompassing Isnos

and San Agustn identied more than 3000 archeological sites, almost all

o them o residential areas. Only 50 o them have unerary monuments othe Regional Classic Period and o these only some (table 1) have archeo-

logical structures or sculptures that are accessible to the visitors.

Photo: Alto de los dolos site, Isnos.


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Table 1

List and geographic coordinates of the most important archeo-

logical sites in San Agustn and Isnos, Alto Magdalena

Site Lat, Lon (WGS84)

Las Mesitas-Mesita A (big statues) N1.883,W76.294

Las Mesitas-Mesita B (the most complex mounds) N1.884,W76.296

Las Mesitas-Mesita C (plain sculpts, not much volume) N1.881,W76.297

Las Mesitas-Mesita D (statues without unerary corridor) N1.887,W76.295

Las Mesitas-Fuente de Lavapatas (sculpt in the stream bed) N1.880,W76.299

Las Mesitas-Alto de Lavapatas (associated to a child cemetery) N1.879,W76.304El Purutal-La Pelota (statues with multicolor paint) N1.913,W76.295

Uyumbe (particularly deep unerary mound) N1.874,W76.257

El Tabor (monumental sarcophagi and phallic monoliths) N1.853,W76.283

El Rosario (rare representation o attacking eline) N1.822,W76.304

Quebradillas (particularly big statues) N1.886,W76.344

La Parada (representation o simian-eline with humanoid eatures) N1.866,W76.329

Quinchana (a burial made or a statue) N1.919,W76.426

El Tabln (statues with many corporal ornaments) N1.899,W76.275

El Jabn (site relies with three mounds, very afected by looting) N1.939,W76.327

La Chaquira (relies over the natural rock) N1.903,W76.268

Alto de los dolos (high concentration o mounds and statues) N1.915,W76.241

Alto de las Guacas (rare gure representing eminine breasts) N1.900,W76.236

Alto de las Piedras (explicit sex representations) N1.971,W76.200

Alto de Betania (rare sarcophagi with sculpt o human ace) N1.919,W76.257

Las Mesitas

Although the elements that characterize the archeological culture

o San Agustn, such as the carved stone statues, slab tombs, the classic

goldwork and the undecorated ceramics o the Regional Classic period

are ound in a vast region, they are clearly concentrated around the Mesitas

area in San Agustn, in which there was also a greater density o residential

sites. Mesitas, that has the most ancient radiocarbon dates or the region,


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includes in an area o less than 1 km2 several o the most impressive exam-

ples o unerary mounds and San Agustn statuary (gure 12).

In Las Mesitas, several residential sites rom all the periods have

been studied, and among them La Estacin stands out as the area with

the remains o the largest architectonic structure ound in the region (9 m

in diameter), belonging to the Recent Period, that has been interpreted as

a temple or ceremonial house.

At arrival to the park, the visitor nds Mesita D, where the main o-

ce is located (gure 13), and encounters there a museum that displays

artiacts rom diferent periods and places o the region and shows a sum-mary o the scientic research. From there, the visitor can start the Park

route with the Forest o the Statues, an outdoor lineal exhibition circuit, di-

rectly south o the Mesita D, where 35 statues rom diverse unerary sites o

the entire region are exhibited, including some o the most amazing San

Agustn sculptures (gure 14).

Figure 12.Map o Mesitas,in the NationalArcheological Parko San Agustn inthe Municipality oSan Agustn.


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Figure 13.View o the parksoces in Mesitas,

San Agustn.

Figure 14.Some o the statues

located in the Foresto the Statues, SanAgustn. (Nos. 205,

107, 24, 223).Further on, the visitor can see ve monumental areas restored in

situ, located towards the south and west o Mesita D: Mesitas A, B and C,

the Fuente de Lavapatas and Alto de Lavapatas. While walking by these u-

nerary sites the visitor can also appreciate the ancient earthworks made in

order to prepare the terrain or the mounds, attening the summits, lling

depressions, constructing elevated paths over embankments and under-

pinning the earth llings with stone structures.

205 107 24 223


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The site known as Mesita A (gures 15 and 16), is located 600 m

south rom Mesita D and since the early 20th century has been one o

the greatest attractions o the Park. The visitor can arrive there ater goingthrough a prehispanic embankment and the entrance gate to Las Mesi-

tas, taking the path detour to the let (south). It contains the biggest u-

nerary mounds o the Regional Classic Period (1-900 A.C.), 4 m high and

30 m in diameter, where, at diferent times, important gures were buried.

The corridors and dolmens o these two principal tombs have, at least, 15

statues and used to be surrounded by numerous simple slab stone tombs

probably or relatives o the chies or other important people that lived in

the nearby household (GR/63).

Figure 15.Mesita Aplan, Mesitas,San Agustn.(Gonzlez, 2007).


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Figure 16.Statues o the

Oriental Mound,Mesita A, San

Agustn.

Figure 17.Mesita B plan,

Mesitas, SanAgustn (Gonzlez,

2007).


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The site known as Mesita B (gure 17) is located 400 m south rom

Mesita D and it can be visited at the end or the beginning o the route, as

an alternative to Mesita A, taking instead the detour to the right (west) onthe path rom the gate. Mesita B is located 200 m northwest rom Mesita

A over the top o an articially attened hill near the bank o the Lavapatas

Stream. This place was used or residential occupation o high status ami-

lies since the Formative 1 period, and during all the prehispanic sequence

ullled a central role in the communities organization. Clear evidence o

ceremonial activities has been ound here as well as production o gold

ornaments. During the Regional Classic Period (1-900 A.C.) three large u-

nerary mounds were built here accompanied by, at least, 63 statues. As in

Mesita A, it has also many simpler tombs o every archeological period and

a household (GR/68).

Mesitas A and B are special because archeological excavations dug

here produced enough inormation to make a very accurate reconstruc-

tion o the unerary architecture o the mounds and especially o the

original distribution o the statues and tombs, with the exception o

the north mound o Mesita B. In other sites, such as Mesita C, D and theAlto de Lavapatas, when the archaeologists started the study o the mon-

uments, they had already been badly damaged and statues or slabs had

been removed, which permitted only a very approximate restoration.

In contrast with Mesita A and Mesita B, that besides the monuments

present residential occupation since the Formative Period, Mesita C, to the

southwest rom Mesita A, is a site only occupied since the Regional Clas-

sic Period. At this time only one unerary mound now gone was built, and

it was accompanied by 15 statues and surrounded by 49 relatively sim-

ple tombs. The sculptures were shallowly carved, over big and at stones,

without almost no strong modication, which makes a sharp contrast to

the ne tridimensional carving o Mesita A.

Dated with radiocarbon to the 7th century A.D., these monuments,

several centuries younger than the ones o Mesita A and Mesita B, show that

at that time San Agustn statues became more abstract and less elaborate.


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Figure 18.Sketch o the

Lavapatas Fountain(Prez de Barradas,

1943).

At a distance o 100 m on the path between Mesita C and the Alto

de Lavapatas there is the Fuente de Lavapatas site, a lithic monument

without unerary association discovered in 1937 by the archaeologistsGregorio Hernndez de Alba and Jos Prez de Barradas (gure 18). Lava-

patas ountain is a great complex o channels, ponds and carvings o hu-

man and animal gures, mostly reptiles and amphibious representations,

surely a sacred place dedicated to religious ceremonies and ritual baths. It

was careully sculpted in the volcanic tuf that orms the natural bedrock

o the Lavapatas Stream; it distributed the stream water across channels


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and small ponds adding sound and movement to the sculpture. Currently,

the visitor can appreciate most o the surace carving, belonging, accord-

ing to the sculptural style, to the end o the Regional Classic Period or evento the Recent Period. The ragility o the stone, combined with the water

contamination, has accelerated the natural deterioration process, which

prompted the establishing o an emergency plan led by the ICANH that

by means o scientic research in preventive conservation looks or proper

ways to preserve these kinds o sculptures.

Photo: Magdalena river gorge near San Agustn.


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The Alto de Lavapatas Site, 600 m west rom Mesita C, is separated by

the stream that carries the same name. Archaeologists Luis Duque Gmez

and Julio Csar Cubillos excavated part o this site in 1974. Through radio-carbon they dated a burner made in 3300 BC, the most ancient evidence

o human activity in the Upper Magdalena. During the Regional Classic

Period a monumental unerary mound was constructed there, accompa-

nied by seven statues and surrounded by several simple stone slab tombs,

including, to the south o the mound, a group o ten very small graves, in-

terpreted to be childrens tombs, probably the young members o an im-

portant amily.

The unerary mounds were constructed generally over hilltops that

were adapted previously displacing great amounts o soil. The topography

o Las Mesitas was modied, also to connect at the same level hills o di-

erent heights with elevated lled paths. It is still possible to see the stone

constructions that served as retaining walls (oten conused with cobbled

paving) and the embankment that connects nowadays the main parks o-

ce with Las Mesitas. These kinds o engineering work, so evident in Las

Mesitas, are present but go unnoticed in many other unerary monumen-tal sites o San Agustn.

They are made o soil, exception made o some reinorcements that

use the same constructive elements o the dolmens, this is to say, a rec-

tangular corridor ormed by vertical slabs, and a ceiling ormed with slabs.

Excavations made by Gerardo Reichel-Dolmaof and Luis Duque Gmez

near the Portn de Las Mesitas showed that these earthworks are support-

ed by a great retaining wall made in only one constructive event and not

by progressive accumulation.


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5. Other Sites

in the Municipalityof San Agustn

El Purutal-La Pelota

Located between the El Purutal Hill and the Northwest slope o the

La Pelota Hill, this archeological site is constituted by two monumentalareas o the Regional Classic Period, each one with an articial unerary

mound built over natural rises connected by an articial embankment ap-

proximately 230 m long. The area o El Purutal was partially excavated in

1984 by Julio Csar Cubillos and has three structures: a tomb and two

shrines or dolmens, each one made by one slab structure and including

a polychrome sculpture.

The visitor nds in El Purutal our statues. Two o them, located insitu, have retained until recently the polychrome painting (gure 19) that

at some time all the principal statues had. In La Pelota, 150 m east, there

are three sculptures that have been moved 80 m rom their original place,

where there are still the remains o a low mound. In 1857, Agustn Codazzi

described in this place our statues associated to a shrine or unerary slab

structure that was already destroyed by looters.

Uyumbe

In the Uyumbe or Ullumbe Hill, 500 m east o the modern town o San

Agustn, there have been ound several statues and stone tombs asso-

ciated to one unerary mound (gure 20) built over the side o the hill

and connected to the hill with an embankment made with articial ll-

ing. Already in 1857 it was severely intervened by clandestine excavations,

but in 1991 it was excavated by the archaeologist Julio Csar Cubillos, who


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Figure 19.(N.162)

Painted statue.El Purutal site,

San Agustn.

Figure 20.Mound 1 cut,

Uyumbe (Duque,1999).


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Figure 21.Sarcophagus andmonoliths o El

Tabor, San Agustn.

obtained a radiocarbon date o 1040 90 A.C. and succeeded in recon-

structing the shape o a slab tomb with six columns and our big slabs as

i they were lids.

El Tabor

This site is also known as La Florida, and it is located on the ridge o

Lavaderos hill, 4 km south o San Agustn and the Naranjos River, over the

route to the Police Station Inspection o El Rosario, in a region where numer-

ous unerary sites have been reported (Ordez, 1995). Over a hilltop thereis a great articial mound with three unerary chambers that include three

particularly large and elaborate monolithic sarcophagi, and also 11 huge

stone columns with slots that are not typical in the monuments o the

region (gure 21). At one side o the mound archaeologist Eduardo Forero


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excavated in 1995 a ourth tomb ormed by several columns and slabs and

in its interior, apparently as an ofer, a statue o a crouching gure carry-

ing and arrow. Years beore, yet another statue was ound there by looters.The apparent inexistence o dolmens in this site is noticeable although it

was already badly altered in the 1930s and it is possible that such struc-

tures were removed.

Quebradillas

Located 5 km to the west o Las Mesitas, on the road that connectsto the El Oso rural district, this site has barely visible remains o two uner-

ary mounds rom the Regional Classic Period, 270 m apart rom each other,

where looters have removed countless pots and several statues, three o

which, o great size, are exhibited there.

When Prez de Barradas visited the zone, in 1937, he ound inten-

sive looting stimulated by the rare nding o golden rings or nose rings at

the site, and was able to examine human bone remains that are also rare

to nd here due to soil acidity. According to the description o the ceram-

ics removed by looters, the site had also tombs o the Formative Period.

Two statues with masks that come rom here (gure 22) are a clear expres-

sion o the importance o the ceremonies in the social organization o the

Regional Classic Period.

El JabnThe El Jabn rural district is part o the Obando Inspection, where

several tombs have been looted and excavated, even in the modern vil-

lage, where some o them, now restored, are exhibited. To access El

Jabn rom the San Agustn town the visitor must cross (7 km north) the

Magdalena River towards Obando by El Estrecho gorge, where the river

goes through a slot in the rock less than 3 m wide, and turn west another 3 km

on a dirt road rom the Obando village. The site still has visible remains o


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two o the three unerary mounds reported by Konrad Th. Preuss in 1914.

It had at least seven statues, rom which three are currently in the Archeo-

logical Museum o Berlin and one is exhibited in situ, near two sarcopha-

gi and several slabs that were part o the already destroyed dolmens. The

rest is now lost.

El TablnThis site is located 2 km north o the town o San Agustn, in the

banks o the El Tabln Stream. It was reported in 1914 by Preuss, who

ound over the narrow edge o a hill three unerary dolmens associated to

several statues and covered by a large earth mound. One o the statures,

2.2 m in height, is wearing a headdress, a tunic, a necklace and a ring nose

and is carrying a at instrument that covers its mouth. This and the other

statues o the site have been classied as eminine gures.

Figure 22.Statue withmask. (N.157).Quebradillas, SanAgustn.


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South o the site, in a separate plot o land owned by the ICANH,

there is an exhibition o ve statues ound in the tombs. The visitor can vis-

it next to it, an ethnographic museum organized by the neighbors o theEl Tabln rural district.

La Chaquira

One o the most important examples o the sculptural art o San

Agustn is La Chaquira, located 4 km north o the town o San Agustn, on

the edge o the range that separates El Tabln Stream rom the MagdalenaRiver Canyon. It is not a unerary site, but a unique group o naturalistic

human and animal igures, sculpted on the walls o huge natural vol-

canic rocks, looking at the Magdalena River that runs 200 m below, east

o this monument. Three human gures sculpted in the same block, with

arms and eet to the sides, like in a worshiping act, stand out (gure 23).

Nowadays, there is a steep path that leads to a series o stairs to access the

group o sculpted rocks.

Figure 23.Sculpture o

La Chaquira, SanAgustn.


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6. Sites located

in the Municipality of Isnos

Alto de los dolos

The Alto de los dolos is only ater Las Mesitas, the site with the most

density o tombs, mounds and statues o the archeological culture o San

Agustn. Reported or the rst time by Konrad Th. Preuss (Preuss, 1931), it

is located in the Municipality o Isnos , 5 km northeast rom the moderntown o San Agustn (15 km by road) and 4 km southwest o the modern town

o Isnos, and it has an administrative oce and an ethnographic museum

managed by the ICANH (gure 24).

It is made o seven unerary mounds associated to several mono-

lithic sarcophagi and at least 23 statues. The mounds were built over a

naturally horseshoe-shaped hill, leveled out with a huge articial terrace.

Figure 24.Map o the Alto delos dolos site, Isnos.


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At each end there are two groups o mounds: Meseta A located in the

Southwest sector (gure 25) and a bit more elevated than the rest o the

site, has ve mounds (1-5). These are characterized or having lithic sar-cophagi with elaborate carving, that are up to 3 m in longitude (gure 26),

and still have in some cases, their also decorated lids,. Meseta B (gure 27)

is located in the northeast sector o the hill and although it has a similar

area, only has the remains o two groups o relatively simple tombs that

are surrounding two great earth mounds (6 and 7) characterized by very

elaborate unerary architecture, with huge slabs and well preserved sculp-

tures that represent animal gures like alligators and rogs accompanying

the human gures.

In 1966, Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatof directed research sponsored by

the Universidad de los Andes to improve the ceramic chronology and also

made some excavations at the site, where the accumulation o articial ll-

ings to adapt the surace o the hill is evident. But, nally, it was only duringFigure 25.

Outlook o theAlto de los dolossite, Isnos. In thebackground the

Meseta A.


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Figure 26.Large Sarcophagus.Mound 2, Meseta A,Alto de los dolos.

Figure 27.Funerary mound 6,Meseta B, Alto delos dolos, Isnos.


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the scientic commission o 1970, carried out by Duque Gmez and Cubillos

when the whole site was surveyed and restoration organized, distinguish-

ing two Mesetas (A and B), each one with several separate mounds. At thissite, is noticeable the good preservation o the polychrome gures that

decorated many o the slabs that ormed unerary corridors.

According to the results o systematic surveys, similarly to Mesitas

and Alto de las Piedras, dolos was a ceremonial center at the center o

important demographic concentrations during the Regional Classic Peri-

od, when the mounds and statues were constructed, but also beore and

ater, during the Formative and Recent Periods, those three places werecenters o high residential density. So, although the unerary monuments

are their most visible characteristic, these sites had a ceremonial impor-

tance not only related to the burials o important people, but surely to a

varied set o activities organized in the same places by certain amilies and

that were important or the communities o the region.

On the other hand, even though Las Mesitas has more monuments,

the human concentrations around these three centers were not so difer-

ent, which means that we can assume they were similar politically inde-

pendent units and, perhaps even with some rivalry among them. The way

in which these units o thousands o people, called chiedoms in anthro-

pological theory, were organized, and the changes that took place within

these organizations, are still under research.

Alto de las PiedrasThe Alto de las Piedras, located in Las Delicias District, 10 km north

rom the Alto de los dolos, is a ceremonial center built atop a small hill that

obtained a hal moon shape by terracing and articial lling. It was known

originally as Gallineros due to the name o a nearby stream. It was rst

studied by Preuss in 1914, and it contained 11 statues distributed around

at least our unerary mounds, each one o them with large corridors and

several smaller tombs. In contrast with other monumental sites here the


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visitor can nd very deep tombs and stone slabs with elaborate and well

preserved original painting. It includes one o the most enigmatic gures

o San Agustn sculpture, called El doble yo (Double me): a human charac-ter with long canine teeth that carries on top o his head a second, smaller

gure, that also combines animal and human eatures (see cover). The site

was already intervened in 1914 and was restored between 1975 and 1990,

when the principal tomb o mound 2 was reconstructed.

7. The NationalArcheological Park

of San Agustnand its Protection

The concern o the archaeologists and other citizens, or the

protection o the unerary monuments o the Regional Clas-

sic Period has encouraged or decades the Colombian Con-

gress and the National Government to establish a legal regime to protect

and preserve this and other Colombian archeological properties.

The Park is legally protected since 1931 as a public cultural property

under the protection o the State. As part o the development o the law,in 1938, the National Archeological Service was created, managed since

1952 by the Instituto Colombiano de Antropologa, ICAN, today Instituto

Colombiano de Antropologa e Historia, ICANH, the entity responsible or

its research and management.

At the end o the 1930s some sectors o archeological interest were

identied, and research was intensied, some monuments were recon-

structed and some areas were delimited so that they could become an


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archeological reservation or protection and educational purposes. The

Colombian State gradually acquired stretches o land that would orm the

Archaeological Park o San Agustn. In 1993 it was declared as a National Mon-ument and in December o 1995 Unesco inscribed it in the World Heritage List.

The Instituto Colombiano de Antropologa e Historia, ICANH, as manager o

the Colombian archeological properties, has a management plan that in-

cludes programs or maintaining the acilities and the outdoor areas open

to the public, the periodical update o the museums exhibit design and

park signaling, the archeological research, the programs related to conser-

vation and restoration, the monitoring o the touristic activity and the pro-

motion o the Parks cultural values.

The direct threats to the good preservation o the archeological cul-

tural properties in the Park are mainly ungus, lichen and insects attacks,

and also the erosion o the sculpted stones. A prime actor, among others,

is direct solar exposure which accelerates the natural process o deteriora-

tion. The ICANH carries out research in these three ronts and also activities

o preventive conservation and restoration. Also, it has invested in con-

structing ences around the terrains and in the Parks path network, whichhas made surveillance easier and has improved the visiting conditions.

The resources or the Parks management come rom the Nations

budget that is annually awarded through the Budget Law. The ICANH

maintains an investment project registered in the Departamento Nacion-

al de Planeacin in order to support these activities. Secondary sources

o unding include the entitys own, generated in a small proportion by

the sale o entrances to the Park, and the contributions o the Ministerio

de Cultura and Fundacin de Investigaciones Arqueolgicas Nacionales o

the Banco de la Repblica.


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8. General

Recommendations

In Colombia, the archeological heritage is a Nations property

and it is inalienable, indeeasible and imprescriptible (Article 72

o the Political Constitution, General Law o Culture, 397 o 1997,

modied by the Law 1185 o 2008). It is a crime to commercialize archeo-

logical properties, to intervene, to export or to use them without ocialauthorization. San Agustn has sufered the efects o looters and o illegal

trac and the visitors risk being involved in illicit activities i they do not

know about these regulations.

Do not engage in any kind o excavation and do not buy crats than

could be original archeological properties. When buying modern crats,

demand that the copies or archaeological replicas have engraved in high

relie the word Rplica to comply with Decree 833 o 2002. I you witness

suspicious excavations or crat sales that might include archeological piec-

es, please inorm it to the Park staf or to the Tourism Police.

The statues and other archeological remains are in danger due to

erosion and biodeterioration that can be accelerated by contact with

strange elements. Due to the lack o precautions, the paintings and sculp-

tures can sufer irreversible damage. Please, do not touch, do not scrawl

or scratch or pour any kind o liquid over the suraces o the archeologi-

cal properties. I you witness vandalism activities, please inorm Park stafknow or the Tourism Police.

The archeological heritage is a National asset and also a property

o mankind. We all have the right to enjoy it but also the duty to protect it

and preserve it or uture generations.


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BibliographyCorreal, Gonzalo. (1974). Arteactos lticos en la hacienda Boulder, municipio de Palermo

(Huila). Revista Colombiana de Antropologa, 16, pp.195-225.

Drennan, Robert. (2000). Las sociedades prehispnicas del Alto Magdalena. Bogot: InstitutoColombiano de Antropologa e Historia.

Drennan, Robert & Dale W. Quattrin. (1995). Social Inequality and Agricultural Resources in theValle de la Plata, Colombia. Foundations o Social Inequality, editado por T.D. Price & G.M.Feinman. pp. 207-233. New York: Plenum Press.

Duque Gmez, Luis. (1999). Notas sobre la investigacin arqueolgica en Colombia en la d-cada de los noventa. Boletn Cultural y Bibliogrfco, 36 (50), p. 3.

Duque Gmez, Luis y Julio Csar Cubillos. (1981). Arqueologa de San Agustn: la Estacin. Bo-got: Fundacin de Investigaciones Arqueolgicas Nacionales, Banco de la Repblica.

. (1988). Arqueologa de San Agustn. Alto de Lavapatas. Bogot: Fundacin de Investi-gaciones Arqueolgicas Nacionales, Banco de la Repblica.

Gonzlez, Vctor. (2007). Cambios prehispnicos en la comunidad de Mesitas: documentando eldesarrollo de un lugar central en un cacicazgo de San Agustn, Huila, Colombia. Memoirs inLatin American Archaeology, 18. Pittsburgh; Bogot: University o Pittsburgh, Dept. oAnthropology, diciembre 30.

Ordez, Hernn. (1994). Arqueologa de San Agustn: exploraciones en la conuencia de losros Naranjos y Granadillos, Alto Naranjos. Boletn de Arqueologa FIAN, 8.

. (1995). Arqueologa de San Agustn: exploraciones en la conuencia de los ros Na-ranjos y Granadillos, Alto Naranjos. Inorme nal presentado al Instituto Colombiano deAntropologa (indito). Bogot.

Preuss, Konrad Th. (1931).Arte monumental prehistrico excavaciones hechas en el alto Magda-lena y San Agustn. Bogot: Escuelas Salesianas.

Quattrin, Dale W. (2001). Cacicazgos prehispnicos del Valle de la Plata, tomo 4: Economavertical, intercambio y cambio social durante el periodo Formativo. Memoirs in Latin

American Archaeology, 11. Pittsburgh, PA.: University o Pittsburgh Latin American Ar-chaeology Publications.

Snchez, Carlos Augusto. (2005). Sociedad y agricultura prehispnica en el Alto Magdalena.Instituto Colombiano de Antropologa e Historia. Inormes Arqueolgicos, 4. Bogot: Ins-tituto Colombiano de Antropologa e Historia.

Santa Gertrudis, Fray Juan de. (1970). Maravillas de la naturaleza, 4 tomos. Bogot: BibliotecaBanco Popular.

Zambrano, Carlos Vladimir. (1993). Hombres de pramo y montaa: los yanaconas del MacizoColombiano. Bogot: Instituto Colombiano de Antropologa.


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San Agustin Archaeological Park. Guidebook.

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