Piedras del Tunjo Archaeological Park

Piedras del Tunjo

Centre of the Piedras del Tunjo Archaeological Park
Location within Colombia
Location	Facatativá, Cundinamarca
Region	Altiplano Cundiboyacense Colombia
Coordinates	4°48′59.59″N 74°20′45.59″W
Altitude	2,611 m (8,566 ft)
Type	Rock art
Part of	Pre-Muisca sites
History
Abandoned	Spanish conquest
Periods	Herrera Period-Late Muisca
Cultures	Muisca
Satellite of	Bacatá
Site notes
Archaeologists	Diego Martínez Celis Álvaro Botiva Contreras Guillermo Muñoz Castiblanco
Condition	Threatened
Public access	Yes

Piedras del Tunjo (Spanish for "Tunjo Rocks") is an important archaeological park established on a natural rock shelter 40 kilometres (25 mi) west of Bogotá in the municipality of Facatativá.

Description

El Abra

Tibitó

Sueva

Tequendama

Nemocón

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Piedras del Tunjo and other rock shelters on and around the Bogotá savanna

In the Late Pleistocene, the site used to be the shore of a large lake flooding the Bogotá savanna; Lake Humboldt .8 It was used by the Muisca rulers as a refuge during the time of the Spanish conquest. The site is one of the possible places where the soldiers of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada killed the ruling zipa Tisquesusa in April 1537.

The rocks are covered with pictographs made by Muisca artists on rocks of the Guadalupe Group. Their age has not been confirmed. The area of the park used to be an hacienda, property of a wealthy family since colonial times. It was nationalized in 1946 to establish the park.

Destruction of the ancient pictographs

Decades of government negligence and lack of policies for the protection of archaeological heritage have resulted in the destruction of most of the ancient paintings.

Gallery

• 
  Rock face with petroglyphs
• 
  Petroglyph on one of the rocks
• 
  Vandalised petroglyph

See also

• Aguazuque, Checua, Tequendama, Tibitó, Sun Temple
• El Abra, Cojines del Zaque

References

Bibliography

• Ulloa, Carlos E; Rodríguez, Erasmo; Acosta, Jorge E. (1998), Plancha 227 - Geología de La Mesa - 1:100,000, INGEOMINAS, p. 1

External links

• (in Spanish) Restoration and training on pictographs - a Colombian Case (Archaeological park of Facatativá) - Rupestreweb
• (in Spanish) To the rescue of the archaeological park of Facatativá - Rupestreweb

Further reading

• Martínez Celis, Diego; Botiva Contreras, Álvaro (2004a), Manual de arte rupestre de Cundinamarca - Manual of rock art of Cundinamarca (in Spanish), ICANH, pp. 1–60, ISBN 958-8181-07-0
• Martínez Celis, Diego; Botiva Contreras, Álvaro (2004b), Introducción al arte rupestre (in Spanish), ICANH, pp. 1–28
• Muñoz Castiblanco, Guillermo (2013), Catalogación, registro sistemático y diagnóstico de las pinturas rupestres del Parque Arqueológico de Facatativá (in Spanish), GIPRI, pp. 1–89
• Muñoz Castiblanco, Guillermo (2006), Pinturas rupestres en el Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia - concentración y diversidad en la Sabana de Bogotá: Municipio de Suacha-Sibaté Cundinamarca - Rock paintings on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia - concentration and diversity on the Bogotá savanna: municipality of Soacha-Sibaté, Cundinamarca (in Spanish), pp. 1–22