Museo del Oro, Banco de la República





		The most notable feature of archaeological objects from the Magdalena valley is their design: the breastplates with their right-angled schematisations of the human form are known the world over. The human figure achieves its most schematised form - that of an X - on the back of a funeral chair. The red pottery with black painted motifs is being shown at the Gold Museum for the first time. One object adopts the anchor shape, which is the coiled tail of a jaguar and is almost unrecognisable on the breastplate beside it. The gold earrings are bats, and various amulets and pendants look like insects or birds, but they are mixtures of animals or even geometric shapes.

		Tolima at the Gold Museum Exhibition Masterpieces of the Magdalena Valley







		The objects from this region take up two rooms, and come from two periods of human occupation of the coffee-growing region. First you will see objects from the Early Period, between 500 B.C. and 600 A.D. Circular, flat breastplates glisten at the other end, with embossed figures representing men transformed into lizards. These are from the Late Period, between 800 and 1600 A.D. Next comes a showcase containing a group of late objects from Upper Cauca. They are referred to as being in Cauca style, and are combinations of a few parts, as in a mathematical game. On the right is a frog, and on the left, birds with human parts, or humans with beaks and birds' wings, but with frogs' legs.

		Quimbaya at the Gold Museum Exhibition Masterpieces of the Mid-Cauca Region Cauca at the Gold Museum Exhibition Masterpieces of the Upper Cauca





		On the vast plains in the northern part of the country, a particular way of life lasted for more than a thousand years. Twice a year, the plains flood when it is the rainy season up on the cordillera. This serious problem for crops, transport and homes was overcome and converted into an advantage by the societies which opted for an amphibious way of life from at least 200 B.C. and built a system of canals that enabled them to dominate the floodwater, make the most of its fertile silt, and travel around in canoes.

		Zenú at the Gold Museum Exhibition Masterpieces of the Caribbean Plains




We continue our tour on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta