Aguazuque

Aguazuque is a pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the western part of the municipality Soacha, close to the municipalities Mosquera and San Antonio del Tequendama in Cundinamarca, Colombia. It exists of evidences of human settlement of hunter-gatherers and in the ultimate phase primitive farmers. The site is situated on the Bogotá savanna, the relatively flat highland of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense close to the present-day course of the Bogotá River at an altitude of 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) above sea level. Aguazuque is just north of another Andean preceramic archaeological site; the rock shelter Tequendama and a few kilometres south of Lake Herrera. The artefacts found mostly belong to the preceramic period, and have been dated to 5025 to 2725 BP (3000 to 700 BCE). Thus, the younger finds also pertain to the later ceramic Herrera Period. There were some difficulties in dating of the uppermost layer due to modern agricultural activity in the area; the sediments of the shallower parts were disturbed. At Aguazuque multiple palaeoanthropological finds have been made; stone and bone tools, remains of fireplaces and a multitude of pre-Columbian foods, primitive circular housing, various burial sites of individual and group interments and in the youngest dated layers, evidences of ceramics. The site represents a transition from a hunter-gatherer culture towards the earliest evidence of agriculture. A phase of settlement is attested where the people moved away from the caves and rock shelters and started inhabiting open area grounds. Investigation of Aguazuque has been conducted since 1986, mainly by archaeologist Gonzalo Correal Urrego who published the results of his studies in the book Aguazuque - evidencias de cazadores, recolectores y plantadores en la altiplanicie de la Cordillera Oriental in 1990.

The site Aguazuque is named after the Hacienda Aguazuque that was built west of the capital Bogotá in the early 17th century.

The history of inhabitation of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense goes back to the prehistorical era. The oldest dated evidence of human settlement on the high plateau in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes has been found in El Abra, within the municipality of Zipaquirá, Cundinamarca. At this rock shelter on the northern edge of the Bogotá savanna, stone tools and chopper cores have been carbon dated at 12,500 years BP. Other early sites of inhabitation of the area have been discovered at Tibitó (11,400 BP), Tequendama (11,000 BP) and Checua (8500 BP), with later settlements in Mosquera (3135 BP), Chía (3120 BP), Junín, Zipacón and Tausa. Younger ceramic artefacts were found around Lake Herrera, the namesake of the Herrera Period that is defined as from 800 BC to 800 AD. The period from 800 to 1537 AD, when the Spanish conquered this area, is characterised by one of the four grand civilisations of the Americas; the Muisca period. Soacha, today the most populated satellite city of the Colombian capital, was an important location for pre-Columbian settlement. Apart from Aguazuque, various other sites have been discovered in the vicinity of Soacha. For example, in 2014, the largest pre-Columbian town has been discovered in Soacha, with the remains of 2200 people, more than 600 ceramic pots and various spindles and tunjos. The name Soacha is derived from the Muysccubun words for Sun; Súa (with the Sun god Sué) and man; chá.

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).