The Pre-Columbian period in Venezuela refers to the period before the

Spanish colonization of the Americas Spain began colonizing the Americas under the Crown of Castile and was spearheaded by the Spanish . The Americas were invaded and incorporated into the Spanish Empire, with the exception of Brazil, British America, and some small regions ...

in the 16th century, known as the Pre-Columbian era. It covers the history of what are now known as the indigenous peoples of Venezuela. Archeologists have discovered evidence of the earliest known inhabitants of the Venezuelan area in the form of leaf-shaped flake tools, together with chopping and plano– convex scraping implements exposed on the high riverine terraces of the Pedregal River in western Venezuela.

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...

hunting artifacts, including spear tips, come from a similar site in northwestern Venezuela known as ''El Jobo''. According to

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

, these date from 13,000 to 7000 BC. Kipfer 2000, p. 172.

Taima-Taima Taima-Taima is a Late Pleistocene archaeological site located about 20 kilometers east of Santa Ana de Coro, in the Falcón State of Venezuela. The human settlement at Taima-Taima started about 14,000 years ago. History of research The site was ...

, yellow Muaco and El Jobo in Falcón are some of the sites that have yielded archeological material from these times. These groups co-existed with megafauna like megatherium, glyptodonts and toxodonts. Archaeologists identify a Meso-Indian period from 7000-5000 B.C.to 1000 A.C. In this period, hunters and gatherers of megafauna started to turn to other food sources and established the first tribal structures. Beginning around 1000 A.C. archaeologists speak of the Neo-Indian period, which ends with the European Conquest and Colony period. palafito

It is not known how many people lived in Venezuela before the Spanish Conquest; it may have been around a million people, and in addition to today's peoples included groups such as the Arawaks,

Caribs “Carib” may refer to: People and languages * Kalina people, or Caribs, an indigenous people of South America **Carib language, also known as Kalina, the language of the South American Caribs * Kalinago people, or Island Caribs, an indigenous ...

, and Timoto-cuicas. The number was much reduced after the Conquest, mainly through the spread of new diseases from Europe.Wunder, Sven (2003),
Oil wealth and the fate of the forest: a comparative study of eight tropical countries
', Routledge. p130. There were two main north-south axes of pre-Columbian population, producing maize in the west and manioc in the east. Large parts of the

Llanos The Llanos (Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, sav ...

plains were cultivated through a combination of slash and burn and permanent settled agriculture. The indigenous peoples of Venezuela had already encountered crude oils and asphalts that seeped up through the ground to the surface. Known to the locals as ''mene'', the thick, black liquid was primarily used for medicinal purposes, as an illumination source, and for the caulking of canoes. In the 16th century when Spanish colonization began in Venezuelan territory, the population of several indigenous peoples such as the Mariches (descendants of the Caribes) declined. Native

cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spa ...

s (leaders) such as Guaicaipuro (c. 1530–1568) and

Tamanaco Tamanaco was a native Venezuelan chief, who as leader of the Mariches and Quiriquires tribes led (during part of the 16th century) the resistance against the Spanish conquest of Venezuelan territory in the central region of the country, specially ...

(died 1573) attempted to resist Spanish incursions, but the newcomers ultimately subdued them. The founder of

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

, Diego de Losada, ultimately put Tamanaco to death.

References

{{Authority control Archaeology of Venezuela Venezuela