The bus on March 5th from Popayan out to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Tierradentro (located in the small “town” [it was actually one street] of Tierradentro) was quite an adventure. The ride was absolutely beautiful, but the road was being re-done and it took forever to maneuver through the mess that had been created. Combining that with the high elevation, and it made for a semi-stressful journey at times. We had some relief from the incredibly cramped (loads of people standing in the aisles) and wobbling bus when we stopped off for lunch.
As we entered the the park, we took a look at the extensive map of sites to see. The National Archaeological Park of Tierradentro is a massive hypogea (underground shaft tombs with side chambers) site of the Tierradentro culture, which is 162 tombs spread out over several kilometers. The site of the tombs was abandoned hundreds of years ago, and has only recently been re-occupied in the 18th and 19th centuries. During this time, many of the sites were thoroughly looted and damaged. The park was created eventually, which finally protected the location.
The park is made up of five key areas, each with only some of its tombs currently open for visitors to see: Alto de San Andrés (7 tombs open), Loma de Segovia (25 tombs open), Alto del Duende (5 tombs open), El Tablón (9 monolithic statues), and Alto del Aguacate (4 tombs open of 42 tombs), and it would be pretty much impossible to do them and the museums all on the same day. We decided to check out one of the museums first and learn a bit more about the Tierradentro people.
Inside the museum we were led around by a security guard, who spoke with us (in Spanish) about some of the information known regarding the tombs. The communal tombs themselves were created by the Tierradentro people between 500-900 CE, when the culture was most active, and now serve as evidence of their advanced and stable culture. Their boundaries are in a massive triangular shape, limited in the east by the canyon and the valleys containing the river Piaz and its tributaries, in the south by the Black River and the edge of Guanacas mountains, and in the west by the paramo (moors) and the mountains.
There were two types of living styles for the Tierradentro people within this region - either close together in small valley settlements, or on dispersed hillside settlements, all in oval-shaped thatched and wooden one-room huts. They built the tombs by carving them out of the volcanic stone subsoil under the ground. Many of the tombs have carved stairs leading down into them – some which 29 feet deep under the ground. In a few of the tombs it is still possible to see side chambers, multiple columns, decorative carved faces, and even multi-colored paintings in red and black of geometrical designs.
There were quite a few carved volcanic statues on display in and around the museum, which archeologist guess are images of ancient dignitaries and religious leaders. We figured out that the male figures had their banded head-dresses (and often, their penises) on display, and the female figures all wore skirts and wrapped hats on their heads.
Along with the statues were some stone axes, arrowheads, and other agriculture tools the Tierradentro culture used in daily life. We read about how bodies went through two burials: a first burial of the whole body for it to decompose, and a second burial in which the body’s bones are dug up and burned and then reburied in decorated urns.
After the first museum we were told the park was closing up for the evening. The security guard point us out a hotel to stay in, and we opted for one run by a woman just next door to the park itself.
The area around Tierradentro is known for its fantastic flowers and birding as well as its many ruins. After we checked into our hotel we wandered the street taking photos of some of the birds we heard singing. At one point during our visit the man painting his hostel next door to ours started singing different catchy tunes, and a mockingbird sitting on a pole nearby him started copying the sounds he was making, repeating them back!
Unfortunately there was only one place to eat in the entire town – some grumpy woman who handed out meals to visitors for cash in the front room of her house. The food was bland and basic, but there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it. Until that evening. While Colin was completely fine, I got incredibly sick. I didn’t know what was going on, and because Colin was OK, I didn’t reckon it was the food at first, but I would later on.
On March 6th we headed back in the morning to the park. I still felt pretty ill (and exhausted, after having been up pretty much all night) and we took a look at the indigenous culture museum that was on sight. There wasn’t too much to see, but it had a few interesting drawings of the people’s life. They were primarily an agricultural people and produced crops such as maize, pumpkin, beans, yucca, potatoes, and coca. The community ate these farmed products along with wild fruit and what they were able to catch in the river and hunt: fish, birds, deer, rabbits, and armadillos. The people were apparently also able to produce salt through the evaporation of saline spring water from the rivers.
After the museum we started walking up the mountain to reach the first set of tombs, but I just couldn’t make it more than half way because I felt so faint. We got me back to the hotel room (a different one this time) and I rested up in bed. I didn’t eat the entire day, but I thought I might be OK to have dinner, because I felt much better by then.
Because there was literally only one place in town (Colin exhausted himself trying to find other food sources that day) to eat we ended up back at the same woman’s house, where we had the almost the same meal. This is when I figured out that I wasn’t over my illness, and it was probably being caused by the food I was eating because I had the exact same reaction AGAIN. I was up the entire night yet again with stomach problems! The woman at our hotel asked if I had eaten the beans at that woman’s place, and we said that we had them in both the dinners we ate there. She seemed to think it was the cause – I’ll never know, but the whole experience was agony.
The morning of March 7th I was trying to find us some horses to take up the mountain. I was absolutely determined to visit the Tierradentro site, sick as a dog or not. And I was very sick still! I was told by the guard there were no horses available (they have to be arranged the day before) – and because we had limited days left in Columbia, it was go that day or miss seeing the site of San Agustin. I was damned if I would do either… I was seeing it all. Sick and with no energy, I convinced (somehow) Colin that I could do the hike. We entered the park and started the walk, hiking up the mountain to the first set of underground tombs: Loma de Segovia.
Loma de Segovia contained 64 oblong (in the same style as the Tierradentro people’s houses) underground tombs with beautiful paintings of concentric rhombuses, human figures, and animals. Many of the tombs had carvings done with chisels made out of obsidian. The guards would unlock the padlock on each tomb, and we would carefully make our way down the steep, ancient staircases (they had since been covered in concrete, so it was a bit safer) to the paintings inside.
The first tomb we entered was 5 meters deep and found full of water and clay, with only some shards of ceramics left inside. We looked up at the entrance above us – it was quite strange to see how the tomb was constructed with stairs carved out of the under-soil of volcanic stone.
There was a special 4 meter deep tomb which had only recently, after the parks creation, been found and opened in the 1990’s by park staff. It had not been previously looted, and because of this the painting was particularly preserved and the artifacts inside the tomb displayed in the museum we saw previously.
We next headed into a 3 meter deep grave which contained 3 columns inside. It was found filled with mud and water when it was excavated in the 1980’s and looked as if it might have previously contained an urn. The excavation found bones and mud in a couple of small holes on the ground of the tomb. There wasn’t much to be seen in this one, so we moved on to the next one which was more impressive. This tomb also had columns, but these white lime (chalk) columns contained faces carved onto them which were decorated with red (made from clay with a high iron content) and black (made from coal) paint, applied using brushes made of hair or feathers.
The next tomb had a hole in it which made it possible to see into an adjoining tomb and realize its existence, and the following tomb we saw had quite a few holes in the floor. Here eight urns were found, four which contained skeletal remains and five of which were painted with horizontal and vertical stripes, along with a red background and white and brown dots. We could see the urns still placed inside the tomb.
The last couple of tombs we saw was one of the most preserved tombs. It contained carved faces and red and black geometric paintings on the ceilings and walls of the tomb. It was so incredible that we were standing inside the tomb, looking at such well preserved ancient artwork!
The next tomb was another very well-preserved one, with more carved faces and red and black paintings on the walls and ceilings. Fantastic.
Unfortunately, the weather was not as good as the day before and it started to rain by the time we had finished looking at the first set of tombs. We had to continue our hike in the rain, uphill yet again, to the next set of tombs. I was struggling, since I was still quite sick and had decided to not eat anything for the day, despite the hiking, so I wouldn’t end up in a puddle on the floor. I was massively relieved when we got to the next part of the park: Alto del Duende.
Alto del Duende had far less underground tombs to see (with only 13 burials overall) and we finished pretty quickly. A few of the tombs had some great finds inside them originally, including one tomb which contained sixteen pieces of ceramics, of which fourteen were decorated and twelve contained skeletal remains. These tombs were so dark we had to bring flashlights down into the tombs with us in order to see anything, hence the white light in my photos. (You cannot use flash photography in the tombs.) My favorite was one which contained red horizontal stripes and rows of black triangles on a white background.
Once we finished at the second tomb site, we headed on a hike to El Tablon. Part of this walk was along the dirt road, and all of it was downhill closer towards the city we planned to have lunch in, San Andres. Part of the way down we spotted the El Tablon site, and found our way inside. Here we were met by a guard who showed us to the nine large monolithic statues of male and female characters. All of the statues were anthropomorphic – and most of the statues were quite decorated. Both the male and female figures wore skirts, blouses, headpieces, earrings, necklaces, and nose rings.
The final tomb we couldn’t enter, I believe it was damaged from an earthquake in 1994 – but it also could have been because tombs are closed on a rotating basis, as it helps to preserve the paintings if they aren’t constantly exposed to the natural elements. In this tomb there are some anthropomorphic paintings in black and red on a white background. It has been hypothesized that the backgrounds were whitened by the tomb’s creators using some kind of natural bleach, and through repeated “sanding” with stones. There was also a carving on the wall with outstretched hands – we could a photo of the tomb’s inside nearby.
We were so happy when we were finally down from the mountains – and I was so happy to get to rest in bed. Colin went out to get some food for dinner (he managed to get pasta that time!) but I stayed back. Since I had sworn off any food, I was even more excited to be leaving the following morning at 7:00 AM. The sooner we could get out of Tierradentro, the sooner I’d feel safe enough to try some food again! We were back on the bus the next morning and off to Popayan, hoping to make it all the way to San Agustin the same day!
Francesca
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