The pre-Hispanic societies of Jardín and Riosucio

Abstract

This article presents the results of archaeological research undertaken in Jardín (southwestern Antioquia) and Riosucio (northeastern Caldas).The project included a survey of various areas and sites and partial excavations of a number of features mainly prehispanic habitation sites inartificial terraces. The archaeological finds consist mainly of shreds, which indicate that the prehispanic occupations of Jardín and Riosucio correspond to the groups of pottery producing agriculturalists who lived in the Cauca gorge and other regions of Antioquia, such as the valley of Aburrá and the high plains of Rionegro. This evidence corresponds to the cultural horizons which spread across the Cauca basin in two distinct periods known as early (the first six centuries AD), characterized by the well known Incised Brown Ware and Late (tenth century AD until the conquest). Although the pottery and burial methods differ in these two periods, the settlement patterns are similar. The habitation sites mainly dispersed across the humid, temperate plain or "coffee belt" and usually in the intermontane valleys, beai witness to a strategy of exploitation of fertile soils. Scattered dwelling Sites are also found in the hot dry slopes near the river Cauca and must have been intended to exploit biological and mineral resources. In the late period greater cultural diversity is expressed by the presence of various ceramic complexes, indicating a new phase of interaction among groups with different economic and social systems in a variety of regional contexts, similar to the situation at the time of the conquest.