Several 3,000-year-old structures found in Colombia

Some 170 archaeologists and workers have spent the last year excavating a 3,000-year-old site in a rural area near the Colombian capital.

Excavation of the 3,000-year-old site in Colombia
[Credit: Hispanically Speaking News]

Covering 7.8 hectares (19.25 acres), the dig is “unique in Colombia” in terms of offering the possibility of reconstructing ancient village life, archaeologist John Gonzalez told Efe.

“The site is the result of the New Hope electricity project. We came here basically due to the need for an environmental impact study,” explained Gonzalez, archaeological coordinator for EPM, one of the companies involved in the power project.

EPM and Codensa, a subsidiary of Spain’s Endesa, expect to start construction at the end of next year on two electrical substations in the Bogota suburb of Soacha.

In the meantime, the two firms are carrying out the archaeological excavation under the supervision of the official Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.

“We have found an archaeological context that tells us about a probable form of village life, with some traces of family dwellings,” Gonzalez said. “We also find structures of a ceremonial type of nature and funerary structures.”

The site has yielded 30 intact ceramic objects as well as human bones and teeth.

The materials reveal that the inhabitants were members of the so-called Herrera culture, who lived in the highlands of central Colombia from around 900 B.C. to A.D. 900.