Coast, river, plain and foothill environments offered the inhabitants of Urabá and Chocó varied resources on which to live and numerous routes for trade and for moving around. Thousands of years ago, this was the gateway through which hunters and gatherers first entered South America. In the early years of the Christian era, sedentary societies of fishermen, gatherers and farmers altered the landscape and left behind remains of their pottery and goldwork. Objects with common motifs, such as spiral breastplates, are clear signs that the people of northern Colombia and Lower Central America were in contact with each other: it was not only objects that they exchanged, but knowledge and ideas as well. In particular, Central American groups are known to have learned metallurgy from their neighbours in Urabá. The present-day Cuna, Embera and Waunana communities are descendants of groups which survived the Conquest.



Around 300 A.D., the spurs of the Serranía de Abibe, in the central range, were inhabited by agricultural societies whose goldsmiths made ornaments and objects for consuming coca. Little is known about these groups, who represented their people, aspects of wildlife and symbols of their thought in gold and tumbaga.

The potters and goldsmiths of Urabá represented the features, decoration, paint and clothes of their women in female figures. Gold objects were used as body ornaments, while pottery ones were perhaps used in rituals. The breastplates, pendants, ear rings, nose rings and necklaces of Urabá are very large and finely made.

The containers themselves and the necks of containers that were used when coca was being consumed reproduce the shapes of reeds and marrows. They frequently portray two, three or even more figures joined together. The spiral was a motif which inspired goldwork and pottery shapes and ornaments. Quite apart from its aesthetic importance, the double spiral must have had a particular symbolism.



Societies in Chocó, on the Pacific side of the country, exploited the rich alluvial deposits of gold at various times and produced gold objects. Around 500 A.D., certain groups on the coast buried their dead with nose rings, and at the time of the Conquest, the inhabitants of nearby Atrato wore nose applications, ornaments under the lips, and breastplates. Little is known about the people who made the ornaments and hooks that have been found in the region.

Schematic human figures with sticks, feather ornaments and masks represented shamans wearing ritual attire.

Circular breastplates and other objects similar to those found in Panama and Costa Rica suggest political, social and bartering relations with people from those regions. Around 800 A.D., groups from Chocó provided people living in the Panama Bay area with gold.

Urabá and Chocó and the Gold Museum Exhibition