Aug. 23, 2023: Museo del Oro

Leo finally was home for a couple of days and the kids and I were going stir crazy so I convinced Leo we needed to get out and do something besides go to a park.  So we went to the Gold Museum.  It's seriously one of the best museums I've ever been to.  Okay, so I love ancient everything and the artistry of the gold work and ceramics is so impressive, so combining my love of art and history, it's really a no-brainer that I would love the museum so much.  The kids really enjoyed it too.  And I honestly don't have much to say about it beyond that, but I included a trillion photos because, why not? 

One of the murals downtown.

  

A very fancy necklace.  

Little jaguar charms, I think they were offerings of some sort. 
Itty bitty froggie.  Again another offering.

Itty bitty frog up close.  There's so much frog imagery.  Well, really a lot of animals altogether.  But I don't know of another culture with so many frogs in their art.  

This guy was tiny too.

Angel Moroni's trumpet.  😂😂.  Just kidding.  

I just really like this one as an artistic piece.  

So many nose rings.  I think people that wear nose rings now should be more inventive like this.  I mean, if you're going to wear/pierce something, might as well make a statement with it. 

I really did like these little guys.

A crown.

Another flute.  Full size this time.  But really, Sebas and Elena's faces for the camera are hilarious.

An aguila!  Really these are minuscule and the beak on that thing is sweet. So much skill.

I seriously want pottery like this in my house.  I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Ah, Lando is so adorable. 

I actually did find a store that sells reproductions of pre-Columbus Colombian pottery.  I just have to decide what piece to get.  

Not this one, he's terrifying.

This one is terrifying too.  Eek!

More jaguars.  

And more fancy jewelry.  I don't understand why stuff like this isn't in more history books.  Like you hear about the Aztec and Inca, but not really about the destruction of the Muiscas.  And while the Muiscas weren't an empires like the Aztec and Inca, because they didn't conquer other people and they didn't have an ultimate ruler/emperor, instead they are considered a confederation (like the Greek city-states), but they were still one of the biggest and best-organized confederations of tribes in the Americas.

The Muisca's society and economy is considered to have been one of the most powerful in the Americas during their time, mainly because of the precious resources of the area: gold and emeralds. But they also mined salt, copper, coal, and they used terrace farming and irrigation in the highlands. Main products were fruits, coca, quinoa, yuca and potatoes.

Another jaguar man.  And another major economic activity was weaving. The people made a wide variety of complex textiles. The scholar Paul Bahn said: "the Andean cultures mastered almost every method of textile weaving or decoration now known, and their products were often finer than those of today." 

Aren't you happy to learn also this fascinating info about a little known part of the world's history?  This guy looks pretty content with life.

This is definitely an armadillo.

Also while the Muisca didn't have a full on writing system, they did use a form of hieroglyphs for numbers.  (Thanks wikipedia for all this info!).   I mean, doesn't that look like the jewelry and adornments of a mathmatician?!? 

I love the monkeys on these.  

Another eagle I think?  Not sure to be honest.

But apparently a super common motif as there's so many.  

Okay, I know I'm just repeating myself, but the skill necessary to make this gorgeous flying fish so tiny is kind of mind boggling to me.

A little bead. 

Seriously, their nose rings/triangle things were something else.  

And a cute little iguana!

Sebastian liked the iguana and the caimans.  

And more frogs!

This cap would certainly be eye-catching. 

But not as eye catching as this crown.

Ah, here's the caimans.  

So cool.

And SOOO many frogs.  This was just a tiny bit of them.

A frog on a throne? Or a half man/frog?

All sorts of birds.  

Another caiman.

And of course, the ever present jaguar.  

I loved the red bead necklace.  I want one. 

The Muisca had an elite group of warriors called Guechas, who were chosen based on merit rather than by class.

The Franciscan friar Pedro Simón (1578 – 1620) described the warriors as "men of great physique, bodies, bold, loose, determined and vigilant". Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita (1624 – 1688) a catholic prelate described the warriors as "brave and determined men, with big beautiful physiques, lightness and skill". Unlike the common men, the warriors wore their hair very short^[5]and were allowed to wear gold beads and ornaments through edge-pierced ears, nose and lips.

I wish I could make costumes like this for the boys to dress up in.  Yeah, I know it would be in bad taste, and I wouldn't really, but they are so fascinatingly beautiful. 

The warriors carried clubs, darts, spears, bows and arrows, and slingshots. They took Panche and Calima slaves with them to war. The men went into combat with curled plumes of parrot feathers, and wide ribbons of fine gold encrusted with emeralds. They wore bracelets and fine coral and gold beads. Inks and Jaguar tattoos were also used.  And that's my random info about them, courtesy of Wikipedia.

I thought this necklace looked pretty modern.  I would wear it--in silver.

While the gold is stunning, ceramics and textiles will always be my first loves, and this ceramic is awesome.

They mummified people too.  That's pretty common in tons of different cultures throughout the Andes.  I don't know that they kept them in their houses and paraded them through the streets like the Inca did though.

More froggies.

And a condor.  

Deer--white tail deer are in Colombia too.  I didn't know their range was that big. 

Yeah, bet you didn't realize you were getting a pilfered history lesson from Wikipedia today.  Also, the gold museum has stuff from lots of different cultures in Colombia, the Muisca is a small part of it really.  Just the Muisca are super interesting to me, because Leo's indigenous DNA is probably mostly Muisca.  It's arguable from what I've read, that Muisca even exist today as they once were, although there are a few pockets of people who claim they are Muisca, because for the most part, they just mixed in with the Spanish.  Like Leo, who's about 5% African, 40% indigenous American, and 55% a mix of Spanish, Portuguese, Basque, and Italian. Leo's grandmother is (according to Ancestry's current estimates) is 43% indigenous American, 13% African, and 44% a mix of European dna.  So yeah, that's true for a lot of Colombians, just the mixture is different.  In fact a study from 2010 involving 15 departments determined that the average Colombian (of all races) has a mixture of 47% Amerindian, 42% European, and 11% African.  Pretty much spot on the nose for Leo's grandma.   Our guide in Tayrona National Park kind of exemplified the cultural mix in Colombia because his mother was an amerindian whose tribe had never been assimilated by the Spanish and he was totally at home with all their beliefs, religion and practices, but his father was from Cali and black, and he looked like his dad.  

I really like this one too. Want more random Colombian facts?  I'm sure you do.  Some demographers describe Colombia as one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the Western Hemisphere and in the world, with 900 different ethnic groups.  There's even a group that's from an area originally conquered by the British, so they almost all are Protestant (very weird for Colombia) and speak an English-based creole language.  

Sebas makes me laugh.

Isabel was so kind and helpful with Efraim that day.  

This guy is awesome.

Sone carvings too. 

Frogs!

Close up so you can see all the amazing details.

Back to DNA, in one region of Colombia, where Leo's father is from (Caldas), researchers found that the mtDNA (from the maternal line) was almost entirely Amerindian, while the YDNA (from the paternal line) was almost entirely European.  As the researchers described it, it was the clearest example of colonization they had ever come across.  

After visiting Peru, I have loved ceramics even more.  They're so much more interesting than just basic pot/vase shapes that I grew up thinking were the norm.

This is one of my favorite pieces in the museum.  That jaguar is just so incredible. The next two are jaguars too, but not as fearsome. 

 I just think people are so artistic, it's beautiful how people since earliest times have had that desire to create.

I love the paintings on this one. 

So as of now, there are  about 87-90 indigenous groups that are scattered across the country, with 710 dedicated reservations--according to one source.  Another place I read that the Amazon section alone of Colombia has over 70 different ethnic groups. 

When you see these, it certainly gives a different light to the descriptions in the Book of Mormon describing their jewelry and fine things.  😂

I wish they had more things like this in the museum.  The feathers used to create capes and colorful beads were so gorgeous.  

So one tribe, the Zenu, lived around the coastal areas of the Caribbean where the inland delta formed by the San Jorge River, the Cauca River, the Magdalena River and the Nechí River frequently flooded during the rainy season. So from 200 BCE onwards they built a system of channels that enabled them to control the flooding and make large areas practical for habitation and agriculture. The system was continually expanded. Covering 500,000 hectares between 200 BCE and 1000 CE, it was at its greatest extent in the San Jorge basin, but channels were also constructed in the lower reaches of the rivers Cauca and Sinú.

The Zenú dug channels, sometimes as long as four kilometers, connected to the natural waterways. Perpendicular to these channels, smaller irrigation ditches were dug. The soil left by the excavations was used to build long artificial terraces, two to four meters high, on which they built their houses. During times of high water, the channels led the water to areas where crops were grown. When the water withdrew, the nutrient-rich sludge was used to enrich the land. This system of water management was used over a period of 1300 years.

Pretty fascinating.  

😍😍😍

These were death masks.  

One tribe, the Paez, have remained fairly distinct in the Cauca region where they live in a very high altitude, cold climate, In the early 1900s, Lazarists built missions among the Paez and began the work to convert them to Christianity. Jesuits had originally tried to convert the Paez, but failed. However, the Lazarists met some success. The Paez developed a syncretic form of Roman Catholicism that absorbed their indigenous religion. For example, the Paez have shamans but many have also become Roman Catholic priests.  That's hilarious.  They still have their own laws/punishments too--stripping the one being punished of his clothing and dunking him in a cold mountain lake is a form of punishment—this was done to Senator Jesús Pinacue, a Paez who defied the community by supporting an unpopular political candidate in a presidential vote.

Jaguar ate that guy.

Going back to why the Muisca aren't ever included with the Inca and the Aztec, etc. even when the Legend of El Dorado is Colombian and so famous, from what I read, it's because three different expeditions of Spanish conquistadors met up at roughly the same time in the Bogotá area, and while they destroyed the Muisca people, not one group could claim individual victory like Cortes or Pizarro.  I think that plays into it.  And also they didn't build stonework building like the Aztec, Mayan or Incan.  The original conquistadors on the Bogotán valley called it the Valley of Palaces because of all the buildings, but the buildings were all adobe and wood, and didn't survive the Spanish.  It's harder to be in awe of a civilization where nothing permanent remains.  Here's a couple examples of their buildings thanks to the internet.  Similarly, the civilizations in the Amazon have now been shown to be highly organized and their creations--mounds of dirt that are incredibly fertile and rise above the flood waters, are more massive and required more labor than the pyramids in Egypt, but it's hard for people to look at mounds of dirt as all that impressive, even though they totally are! Same with the mound builders in North America.

So yeah, nothing really left.  😔

Another group, the Wayuu, live on the Caribbean coast where Colombia and Venezuela meet.  It's actually desert there--weird, eh?  But that tribe was never conquered by the Spanish and they stayed in a constant state of warfare throughout the entire colonial period.  In 1718, Governor Soto de Herrera called them "barbarians, horse thieves, worthy of death, without God, without law and without a king". Of all the Indigenous peoples in the territory of Colombia, they were unique in having learned the use of firearms (which they obtained from Dutch and English smugglers) and horses. Even after Colombia gained independence, they were pretty much left alone--the first recent attempt at creating a Catholic parish there wasn't until 1905.  Anyway, now there are tours and tourists that visit Wayuu towns.  

Interestingly, the Taironas or Tayronas, were one of the first Colombian indigenous groups the Spanish met up with in what is now Santa Marta in 1525.  Their language is in the same family, Chibcha, as the Muisca, and their culture shared some similarities as well. Anyway, despite them being one of the very first cultures the Spanish ran into, they retreated to the Sierra Nevadas de Santa Marta mountains and have remained isolated till just recently.  Crazy, eh?  The indigenous Kogi, Wiwa, Arhuacos, and Kankuamo people who live in the area today are direct descendants of the Tairona. 

So I'm obviously just copying and pasting info here, but I actually read a whole book about the Kogi years ago when I lived in Chicago.  Here's the wikipedia version:

Since the Spanish Conquistadors, the Kogi have remained isolated from the rest of the world. In order to preserve their traditional way of life, they rarely interact with the modern world or with outside civilization. Outsiders are not allowed in their ancestral lands.^[7] Only men may interact with outsiders.^[8] Mamos (religious shamans) say that the balance of the earth's ecology has been suffering due to modern-day devastation of resources by Younger Brother (people who are not Kogi). Mamos in turn believe that their work as Elder Brother (the Kogi) is instrumental for prolonging and protecting life on earth.

To prevent further ecological catastrophe and destruction, the mamos broke their silence and allowed a small BBC film crew into their isolated mountaintop civilization to hear their message and warning to Younger Brother. The subsequent messages and warnings were voiced in the documentary From the Heart of The World - The Elder Brother's Warning== on YouTube. After the documentary was filmed, the mamos returned to their work in isolation and asked outsiders not to come to their land.

The Kogi soon realized that their warning had not been heeded by Younger Brother, and instead, as they had predicted, many catastrophes occurred and the natural world continued to be devastated even more rapidly.^[9] 20 years later, they contacted the same filmmaker to give one final message. They made a documentary film called Aluna, where they give a second warning and say that they have chosen to share their secret sciences with Younger Brother so that Younger Brother can help change the world for the better.

This is so incredible!!!  And like the Kogi, there's the Yuri and Passe tribes in the Colombian Amazon as well which are completely isolated.  There's a video about one of them I added below.  

The San Agustín and Tierradentro cultures did work in stone--they made around 500 megalithic stone statues, the tallest being 23 feet, and large stone underground burial chambers.  But the area was isolated throughout the colonial period; and during the last sixty years, isolated due to armed conflict in Colombia.  But the above is one of them.  I'd love to go visit the national park and UNESCO heritage sites, but I think I'm the only one in my family that would enjoy it that much and it's a ways away from Bogotá so it didn't even make it to the top 5 places we wanted to travel to.  After Bahia Solano and Cartagena, we would have gone to Los Llanos next, and then the Zona Cafetera or Los Nevados, and then the Caño Cristales area, and THEN San Agustín or maybe the Amazon.  There's so many places I would love to go actually.  If only money wasn't an issue. Colombia is amazing!

And last but not least, the most famous gold piece of all, the Balsa Muisca, directly linked to the Legend of El Dorado.  Sebastian took this picture for me. He did a good job.  Here's a link to a video about it: How the Golden Raf was Made and this one: What the Remains of the Muisca can teach us and last but not least: The Muisca