INTRODUCTION

The basic framework of Colombia archaeology was established by Gerardo Reichel-Dolmat-off, an Austrian-born Colombian who made immense contributions to knowledge about his adopted land through his fieldwork in many of its regions (Oyuela-Caycedo 1996a, 1998). The most useful synthesis of Colombian archaeology is his book Colombia (1965,1997). Reichel-Dolmatoff divided Colombian prehistory into the following periods: Paleo-Indian, Formative, and Regional Developments (the coast and inland; the chiefdoms: San Agustin, Tierradentro, Quimbaya, Calima, Narino, and Sinu; the incipient states: Muisca and Tairona). In terms of territorial space the major regions of Colombia are: the Atlantic or Caribbean Coast (Botiva Contreras 1989), the middle valley of the Magdalena River, the central mountains of Antioquia, the mountains of Santander, the high plateau of Cudinamarca and Boyaca, the mountains and drainage of the Cauca River, the Pacific coast and west cordillera, the upper Magdalena River region, the southern Andean mountains, the oriental grasslands of Colombia, and the Colombian Amazon.

Northern Colombia is a geographical area that needs to be studied intensively. It is known as “El Caribe” or “la Costa” and its people are called “Costenos.” It is a territory that is recognized as having a history very different from the Andean altiplano of Cundinamarca-Boyaca. La Costa, composed of the states of Cordoba, Bolivar, Cesar, Magdalena, and Guajira, is the place from which Spanish conquest and colonization expanded into the Andes. Only two regions of this territory are analyzed in this chapter. One corresponds to

Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell.

Springer, New York, 2008

Figure 22.1. General location of the Sinu (within the outlined square box) and Tairona chiefdoms (hachured area) in Colombia. (Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo)

The region of the Sinu chiefdoms and the other to the Tairona chiefdoms (Figure 22.1). The two are very different in terms of their geography and pre-Hispanic complexity. However, they share a common feature: the massive transformation of the landscape through human use, leaving the ecology of the regions profoundly transformed.

Northern Colombia is characterized by a mosaic of micro-environments with an archaeological past that is still far from adequately understood for any time period or framework, chronological or spatio-cultural. The landscape is characterized by rolling hills of grasslands that cover 70% of the landscape, some of which are subject to seasonal flooding. Forest is restricted to the last fingers of the Andes with an isolated pyramid-shaped mountain with permanent glaciers located only a short distance from the Caribbean Sea. The coastal environment is diverse with deep-sea bays enriched by upwelling currents and large lagoons whose salty seawaters are replaced seasonally by river runoff, according to rainy-dry cycles. Alluvial fans and large flood plains that are underwater on a seasonal basis dissect the northern coast. It is also a region with large estuarine conditions found in the deltas of the Sinu and Magdalena rivers. In contrast to these areas of humid environments, at the northeastern tip of Colombia is the Guajira, a dry desert peninsula with sand dunes and xerophytic conditions. It is in this mosaic of ecological variations that several

Chiefdoms developed complex relationships with the environment, transforming it in significant ways that continue to affect present-day occupants of the region.

Our knowledge of humans in northern Colombia begins at least 11,000 years ago in the Paleoindian period. A few serendipitous archaeological findings indicate the easiest route taken by the first populations as they entered and colonized eastern South America. For instance, we have learned about the seasonal use of the high terraces of the Magdalena River for hunting with projectile point technologies (Lopez Castano 1998, 1999).

The next time periods, known as the Archaic and Formative (marked by the introduction of pottery), saw restricted seasonal movements of populations that depended heavily on the use of diverse micro-environments, and efficient use of resources as they became available seasonally. More is known about these Archaic/Formative times than the Paleoin-dian Period, but our view of lifeways is mostly limited to the coastal areas where sites such as Monsu, Puerto Hormiga, Barlovento, Canapote, Crespo and Puerto Chacho have been studied. Only one interior site, known as San Jacinto 1, has been excavated and analyzed (Oyuela-Caycedo 1996; Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani 2005).

Around 4000 BC, pottery was invented, as demonstrated by the excavations of San Jacinto 1, a site located in the rolling hills of the anthropogenic savannas of Bolivar. Pottery was invented in a grasslands environmental context, and it consists of well-decorated vessels with zoomorphic lugs that do not seem to repeat the same motifs. However, the pottery displays a high diversity in decorative technology that is found later in neighboring ceramic complexes, but with simpler designs. Examples include lower Central America (such as, the Monagrillo ceramics) and northwestern South America (such as pottery with Barrancoide style decorations). Initially, pottery was used primarily for serving purposes, and possibly for the fermentation of beverages. Cooking was done in roasting pits for steaming foods that included wild meat and possibly tamales (a steamed or boiled mass of flour wrapped in large leaves) made with flour processed from the grass seed plants (Oyuela-Caycedo 1995a). Ground stone technology included metates and grinding tools, while nutcrackers appear that are similar to examples from Spanish Conquest times.

We can speculate that reduction in people’s mobility and increased dependency on domesticated plants favored the rise of decentralized forms of power in the lowlands of Colombia. This decentralized power appears to be associated with chiefdom societies and was probably tied to population density and expansion of the diet, including the use of domesticated plants. The first secure evidence of the formation of chiefdom societies in northern Colombia (see Chapter 21 in this volume for discussion of central and southern Colombia) occurs in two areas, pertaining to the Sinu and the Tairona chiefdoms (Figure 22.1), although the internal variability in both is high and still needs to be defined into local and regional variations.

Common to both the Sinu and Tairona cultural areas are elaborate transformations of the landscape. The Sinu region is formed by a complex ecological system of river drainages and interfluvial savannas. Part is an area of seasonal flooding produced by the Sinu River and its delta, which disperses waters into the Atlantic Ocean. In contrast to this, the San Jorge River drains its waters through the Cauca River into internal deltas that form the lower depression of Mompox where they join the Magdalena River. Between these active flood plains there is a rolling landscape known as the savannas of Bolivar with low extensions of the Andes mountains, including the Serranias de Ayapel, San Jacinto and San Jeronimo.

The second region with complex chiefdoms is the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM), the Tairona heartland. Here a great mountain rises 5,775 masl in front of the

Caribbean Sea, with deep bays and a large lagoon named Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta, which constitutes part of the delta of the Magdalena River.

The two regions have different histories. Sinu is linked to flood management and grassland populations that were able to exploit a rich environment. The Tairona populations lived in a rough mountainous landscape with slopes of more than 45 degrees and poor soils, but with rich coastal fishing and natural areas that facilitated salt production.

The main objective of this paper is to discuss what we have learned of the relationships of these chiefdom societies with their environments and the transformations of the landscape as case studies in historical ecology. In both complexes of chiefdoms, Sinu and Tairona, the human populations shaped the landscape to such a degree that they are best understood as anthropogenic—two great archaeological landscapes transformed by human activities involving intensive selection and modification (Denevan 1992: 375). The impact of these chiefdoms on the landscape is apparent even in the present, defining the ecology of the regions. Only recently have they become more “natural” after the depopulation created by the Spanish conquest that decimated the native population to a fraction of its pre-Hispanic size.

The old Sinu and Tairona culture areas are not the only ones in northern coastal Colombia with significant pre-Hispanic developments in landscape transformations and political complexity. There are other areas but little research has been conducted in insecure regions controlled by guerrilla or paramilitary groups. For example, the Serrania de San Lucas, which is the mountainous ridge of the Central Cordillera that separates the Cauca and Magdalena drainage systems from one another is a region rich in gold. There is anecdotal information about large settlements, ancient roads, and pre-Hispanic terraces, but the area is totally unknown in terms of professional research because this territory is avoided by state agencies and has been under the control of guerrilla organizations (ELN) for decades. Other regions also present problems of access and security due to their marginalization from the modern Colombian state.

This chapter considers how and why these pre-Hispanic societies developed a degree of complexity that places them in the chiefdom category. All of them had a strong impact on their landscapes, to the point that the modern environments can be characterized as archaeological artifacts still in use today. Descendents of the original inhabitants still live in both regions. Linguistically, the descendents of the Sinu have lost their language, making it impossible to classify them in terms of known linguistic families (Adelaar and Muysken 2004). However, taking toponyms into consideration the area seems to have been occupied by Chibchan speakers. In the case of the SNSM, the various groups that still exist also belong to the Chibchan language family.