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The Regions of Gold
The world map of 1529 did nothing to dispel the fantasies of gold hungry
Europeans, for in 1513 14 Ferdinand II had changed the name of this new
land from Tierra Firme (the mainland) to Castilla del Oro (Golden
Castille). (It was not until much later that it was called after
Columbus.) El Dorado was the myth, but what lay beyond that myth was an
unknown land of complex geographical features ranging from lush rain
forests to snow capped mountains, from arid deserts to grass rich
savannas and fog shrouded valleys.
From the Caribbean to the Pacific, the invaders met diverse tribes of
Indians speaking many different languages. Some tribes fought them
ferociously, others joined with them in their battles, and some led them
to gold. What the Spaniards were not given, they took. They scoured the
land obsessively for gold. A few wrote chronicles, filled with facts
about the land and its native inhabitants. Historians and, for the past
century, archaeologists have woven together some of the threads of these
lost civilizations. We are now beginning to understand the different
tribal art styles, and the archaeology of the gold working regions.
The Indians were buried with as much wealth as possible, and so they
strove with the utmost diligence throughout their lives to acquire and
amass all the gold they could, which they took from their own land and
were buried with it, believing that the more metal they carried away
with them the more esteemed they would be in the places and regions to
which they imagined their souls would go. Pedro de Cieza de Leon, 1554
In the sixteenth century, the Spaniards explored the lagoons and
savannas of the Sinu region of northwest Colombia, one of the richest
and most populous areas of the northern coast. When Pedro de Heredia
visited its principal town in 1534, he found very large communal or
multifamily houses, each of which was surrounded by smaller buildings
for servants and stores. In a corner of the main square was a temple big
enough to hold more than a thousand people, and containing twenty four
wooden
idols covered with sheet gold. These images were arranged in pairs, each
pair supporting a hammock filled with golden offerings. Around the
temple were the burial mounds of chiefs, each mound topped by a tree
whose branches were hung with golden bells.
One of the most interesting recent discoveries is a circular burial
mound typical of Sin 6 chiefs, at El Japon, on the east bank of the Rio
San Jorge. It covered two skeletons, each resting on a sloping stone
slab. In the space below these slabs, offerings were deposited: a piece
of cloth, a creature carved from shell, a double spouted container made
of stone, a mirror of black volcanic glass, several pots, flat and
cylindrical terracotta stamps, and many gold pieces breastplates,
bracelets, a crown, beads, nose ornaments, bells, and ear ornaments of
false filigree. The most distinctive Sinu pieces are the staff heads, of unknown use,
surmounted by figures of human beings, animals, or big beaked birds.
Some of the finest Sinu goldwork is executed in the false filigree
technique, seen at its best in matching sets of fan shaped ear
ornaments.
The mountainous Tairona lands and the adjacent Caribbean coast were
densely populated, and it was not until about 1600 (after a series of
native rebellions) that the Last of the Tairona groups submitted to
Spanish rule. Ancient Tairona settlements range from villages of no more
than thirty houses to large towns with a thousand or more dwellings
spread over an area of several hectares. These Indians also constructed
irrigation canals and agricultural terraces for maize and a variety of
other crops, and their skill as engineers and architects is attested by
the stone roads, reservoirs, bridges, and stairways which are widespread
in former Tairona territory.
There were ceremonial houses much larger than the ordinary dwellings.
One of these contained caches of ritual stone objects buried in pots or
underneath stone slabs. Beside the entrance was a jaguar skull. Even
today all the ceremonial houses of the Kogi Indians, descendants of the
prehistoric Taironas, are dedicated to Cashinducua, the jaguar god.
There was a small scale trade in gold objects between the Sierra Nevada
and the Sinu, but the main commercial links were with the Muiscas, to
whom the Taironas sent gold nose ornaments, beads, and seashells in
return for emeralds. The Taironas often portrayed pugnacious warrior
figures on their pendants.
In Spanish chronicles the Muisca (or Chibcha) kingdoms of the high,
temperate plateaus of Cundinamarca and Boyacá are described in
enthusiastic terms. The land was fertile, with numerous towns of wood
and thatch buts surrounded by palisades. The individual towns were organized into two loose confederations,
controlled by two chieftains, one from the south and one from the north.
Religion centered on the cult of the sun, though offerings were made to
a multitude of other deities. At Sogamoso there was a large wooden
temple, but caves, hilltops, woods, and lakes were also considered
sacred places. The five holy lakes (Guatavita, Guasca, Siecha, Teusaca,
and Ubaque) were inhabited by snake gods, and became pilgrimage centers.
At all
these places, idols were set up and offerings were made. |
