Editing History of Colombia (section)

== Pre-Colombian ==
{{main|Pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia|Indigenous peoples in Colombia}}

[[File:Culturas precolombinas de Colombia.png|thumb|300px|Location map of the pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia]]

From approximately 12,000 years [[Before Present|BP]] onwards, [[hunter-gatherer]] societies existed near present-day Bogotá (at [[El Abra]] and [[Tequendama]]), and they traded with one another and with cultures living in the [[Magdalena River]] valley. Due to its location, the present territory of Colombia was a corridor of early human migration from [[Mesoamerica]] and the [[Caribbean]] to the [[Andes]] and the [[Amazon basin]]. The oldest archaeological finds are from the Pubenza archaeological site and El Totumo archaeological site in the Magdalena Valley {{convert|100|km|mi}} southwest of Bogotá.<ref name=Correal1993>{{cite journal|last=Correal|first=Urrego G.|title=Nuevas evidencias culturales pleistocénicas y megafauna en Colombia|journal=Boletin de Arqueologia|year=1993|issue=8|pages=3–13}}</ref> These sites date from the [[Paleoindian]] period (18.000–8000 BCE). At Puerto Hormiga archaeological site and other sites, traces from the Archaic period in South America (~8000–2000 BCE) have been found. Vestiges indicate that there was also early occupation in the regions of [[El Abra]], [[Tibitó]] and [[Tequendama]] in [[Cundinamarca Department (1820)|Cundinamarca]]. The oldest pottery discovered in the Americas, found at the San Jacinto archaeological site, dates to 5000–4000 BCE.<ref>{{cite journal
|last=Hoopes
|first=John
|title=Ford Revisited: A Critical Review of the Chronology and Relationships of the Earliest Ceramic Complexes in the New World, 6000–1500 B.C. (1994)
|journal=Journal of World Prehistory
|year=1994
|volume=8
|issue=1
|pages=1–50
|doi=10.1007/bf02221836
|s2cid=161916440
|url=https://zenodo.org/record/848786
|archive-date=2018-10-21
|access-date=2019-09-08
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181021232542/https://zenodo.org/record/848786
|url-status=live
}}</ref>
Indigenous people inhabited the territory that is now Colombia by 10.500 BCE. Nomadic [[hunter-gatherer]] tribes at the [[El Abra]] and [[Tequendama]] [[List of Muisca and pre-Muisca sites|sites]] near present-day [[Bogotá]] [[Muisca economy#Trade|traded]] with one another and with other cultures from the [[Magdalena River|Magdalena River Valley]].<ref>
{{cite journal
|author1=Van der Hammen, T
|author2=Correal, G
|year=1978
|title=Prehistoric man on the Sabana de Bogotá: data for an ecological prehistory
|journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
|volume=25
|issue=1–2
|pages=179–190
|doi=10.1016/0031-0182(78)90077-9
|bibcode=1978PPP....25..179V
}}
</ref>

[[Serranía de la Lindosa]], a mountainous region of [[Guaviare Department]], is known for an extensive prehistoric [[rock art]] site which stretches for nearly eight miles. Some authors have argued that the site depicts now extinct animals such as horses, [[gomphothere]]s and [[ground sloth]]s and that it was painted around 12,600 years ago,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Iriarte |first1=José |last2=Ziegler |first2=Michael J. |last3=Outram |first3=Alan K. |last4=Robinson |first4=Mark |last5=Roberts |first5=Patrick |last6=Aceituno |first6=Francisco J. |last7=Morcote-Ríos |first7=Gaspar |last8=Keesey |first8=T. Michael |date=2022-04-25 |title=Ice Age megafauna rock art in the Colombian Amazon? |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |language=en |volume=377 |issue=1849 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2020.0496 |issn=0962-8436 |pmc=8899627 |pmid=35249392}}</ref> but other authors have argued that the drawings depict modern (including domestic) animals and were created in the last 500 years after European contact.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Hunt |first=Katie |date=2022-03-07 |title=Controversial rock art may depict extinct giants of the ice age |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/americas/rock-art-colombia-scn/index.html |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=CNN |language=en |archive-date=2024-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303063710/https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/americas/rock-art-colombia-scn/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=This Amazon Rock Art Is 12,600 Years Old And Depicts Extinct Creatures |url=https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/amazon-rock-art-could-depict-millennia-old-megafauna |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=Discover Magazine |language=en |archive-date=2024-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303064426/https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/amazon-rock-art-could-depict-millennia-old-megafauna |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Ferreira |first=Becky |date=2022-03-07 |title=Does This Amazon Rock Art Depict Extinct Ice Age Mammals? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/science/ice-age-rock-art.html |access-date=2024-03-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Between 5000 and 1000 BCE, hunter-gatherer tribes transitioned to agrarian societies; fixed settlements were established, and pottery appeared. Beginning in the 1st millennium BCE, groups of [[Amerindian]]s including the [[Muisca people|Muisca]], [[Quimbaya civilization|Quimbaya]], [[Tairona]], [[Calima culture|Calima]], [[Zenú]], [[Tierradentro]], [[San Agustín Archaeological Park|San Agustín]], [[Panche people|Tolima]] and Urabá became skilled in farming, mining and metalcraft; and some developed the political system of ''[[cacicazgo]]s'' with a pyramidal structure of power headed by [[cacique]]s. The Muisca inhabited mainly the area of what is now the [[Departments of Colombia|Departments]] of [[Boyacá Department|Boyacá]] and [[Cundinamarca Department|Cundinamarca]] high plateau (''[[Altiplano Cundiboyacense]]'') where they formed the [[Muisca Confederation]]. The Muisca had one of the most developed political systems ([[Muisca Confederation]]) in [[South America]], surpassed only by the [[Inca civilization|Incas]].<ref name=Ocampo_p27>Ocampo López, 2007, p. 27</ref> They farmed maize, potato, quinoa and cotton, and traded gold, [[Colombian emeralds|emeralds]], blankets, ceramic handicrafts, coca and especially [[Nemocón|salt]] with neighboring nations. The Tairona inhabited northern Colombia in the isolated [[Andes]] mountain range of [[Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta]].<ref name=Broadbent>Broadbent, Sylvia 1965: Los Chibchas: organización socio-política. Série Latinoamericana 5. Bogotá: Facultad de Sociología, Universidad Nacional de Colombia</ref> The [[Quimbaya civilization|Quimbaya]] inhabited regions of the [[Cauca River|Cauca River Valley]] between the [[Cordillera Occidental, Colombia|Western]] and [[Cordillera Central, Colombia|Central]] Ranges.<ref>
{{cite book
|title= Los indios de Colombia
|volume = 7
|author1= Álvaro Chaves Mendoza
|author2= Jorge Morales Gómez
|publisher= Editorial Abya Yala
|isbn = 9978041699
|year= 1995
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=txJH1_qweSMC&pg=PA1
|language= es
}}</ref> The Incas expanded their [[Inca Empire|empire]] on the southwest part of the country.<ref>{{cite journal|last= de Mahecha|first= Ana María Groot|title= Intento de delimitación del territorio de los grupos étnicos Pastos y Quillacingas en el altiplano nariñense.|journal= Boletín de Arqueología de la Fian|url= http://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/fian/article/view/5130/5381|publisher= Boletín de arqueología de la Fian 3.3|year= 1988|volume= 3|issue= 3|pages= 3–31|language= es|archive-date= 2017-07-04|access-date= 2016-08-11|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170704211058/https://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/fian/article/view/5130/5381|url-status= live}}</ref> During the 1200s, [[Austronesian expansion|Malayo-Polynesian]]s and [[Indigenous peoples in Colombia|Native Americans]] in Colombia made contact, thereby spreading Native American genetics from Precolonial Colombia to some Pacific Ocean islands.<ref>[https://phys.org/news/2020-07-polynesians-native-americans-contact-european.html Polynesians, Native Americans made contact before European arrival, genetic study finds by Stanford University Medical Center]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2487-2 |title=Native American gene flow into Polynesia predating Easter Island settlement By Alexander G. Ioannidis et al. |access-date=2024-11-25 |archive-date=2020-07-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709070539/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2487-2 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" style="font-size:88%; line-height:130%; border-bottom:1px #aaa solid;" heights="180" caption="Pre-Columbian">
Muisca raft Legend of El Dorado Offerings of gold.jpg|The ''[[zipa]]'' used to cover his body in gold, and. from his [[Muisca raft]]. he offered treasures to the ''Guatavita'' goddess in the middle of the [[sacred lake]]. This old [[Muisca Confederation|Muisca]] tradition became the origin of the ''[[El Dorado]]'' legend.
Museo del Oro Zenú Bogota mod.jpg|A lowland [[Zenú]] cast-gold bird ornament that served as a staff head. dated 490 CE. This culture used alloys with a high gold content. The crest of the bird consists of the typical Zenú semi-[[filigree]]. Regular filigree is braided wire, but the Zenú cast theirs.
Taironapendants metropolitan 2006.jpg|[[Tairona]] figure pendants in gold
Cacique Quimbaya de oro (M. América, Madrid) 01.jpg|Golden statuette of a [[Quimbaya civilization|Quimbaya]] ''[[cacique]]''
Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín - tomb of a deity with supporting warriors.jpg|[[San Agustín Archaeological Park]] ([[UNESCO World Heritage Site]]) contains the largest collection of religious monuments and [[megalith|megalithic sculpture]]s in Latin America,<ref>{{cite web|title=San Agustín Archaeological Park|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/744|website=UNESCO World Heritage Center|access-date=27 January 2015|archive-date=27 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127145049/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/744|url-status=live}}</ref> and is considered the world's largest [[necropolis]].
Lost City Ruins.jpg|[[Ciudad Perdida]] is a major settlement believed to have been founded around 800 CE. It consists of a series of 169 [[terrace (agriculture)|terraces]] carved into the mountainside, a net of tiled roads and several small circular [[plaza]]s. The entrance can only be accessed by a climb up some 1,200 stone steps through dense jungle.<ref>{{cite web|title=Explore the Site|url=http://ghn.globalheritagefund.org/explore.php?id=1305|website=Global Heritage Fund|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140908133823/http://ghn.globalheritagefund.org/explore.php?id=1305|archive-date=2014-09-08}}</ref>
Villa de Leyva el infiernito.jpg|[[El Infiernito]], a [[pre-Columbian]] archaeoastronomical site located on the [[Altiplano Cundiboyacense]] in the outskirts of [[Villa de Leyva]]
</gallery>