Tibitó
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Tibitó is the second-oldest dated
archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
on the
Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. The altiplano corresponds to the ancient territory of the Muisca. The Alti ...
,
Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
.Caracterización de los sitios arqueológicos Sabana de Bogotá
-
ICANH The Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History ( es, Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia), ICANH, is a scientific and technical government agency ascribed to the Ministry of Culture in charge of researching, producing and dissemi ...
The
rock shelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long, rock shelters are almost alway ...
is located in the
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
Tocancipá Tocancipá () is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Central Savanna Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. Tocancipá is situated in the northern part of the Bogotá savanna, part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Eastern ...
, Cundinamarca,
Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
, in the northern part of the
Bogotá savanna The Bogotá savanna is a montane savanna, located in the southwestern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the center of Colombia. The Bogotá savanna has an extent of and an average altitude of . The savanna is situated in the Eastern Range ...
. At Tibitó, bone and stone tools (knives and scrapers mostly) and carbon have been found. Bones from ''
Haplomastodon ''Notiomastodon'' is an extinct proboscidean genus of gomphotheres (a distant relative to modern elephants) endemic to South America from the Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene. ''Notiomastodon'' specimens reached a size similar to t ...
'', ''
Cuvieronius ''Cuvieronius'' is an extinct New World genus of gomphothere, named after the French naturalist Georges Cuvier. Alive, specimens typically stood about tall at the shoulder, weighed about and would have superficially resembled a modern elephant ...
'', ''
Cerdocyon The crab-eating fox (''Cerdocyon thous''), also known as the forest fox, wood fox, bushdog (not to be confused with the bush dog) or maikong, is an extant species of medium-sized canid endemic to the central part of South America since at least ...
'' and
white tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...
from the deepest human trace containing layer of the site is carbon dated to be 11,740 ± 110 years old. The oldest dated sediments are lacustrine clays from an ancient
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
lake. Principal research at Tibitó was carried out by Colombian
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
Gonzalo Correal Urrego Gonzalo Correal Urrego ( Gachalá, Colombia, 23 October 1939) is a Colombian anthropologist, palaeontologist and archaeologist.
, who also analysed other early sites
Tequendama Tequendama is a preceramic and ceramic archaeological site located southeast of Soacha, Cundinamarca, Colombia, a couple of kilometers east of Tequendama Falls. It consists of multiple evidences of late Pleistocene to middle Holocene populati ...
,
Aguazuque Aguazuque is a pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the western part of the municipality Soacha, close to the municipalities Mosquera and San Antonio del Tequendama in Cundinamarca, Colombia. It exists of evidences of human settlement of ...
and
El Abra El Abra is the name given to an extensive archeological site, located in the valley of the same name. El Abra is situated in the east of the municipality Zipaquirá extending to the westernmost part of Tocancipá in the department of Cundinamarc ...
.Correal Urrego, 1990


Background

The Altiplano Cundiboyacense, and its southeastern flat portion the
Bogotá savanna The Bogotá savanna is a montane savanna, located in the southwestern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the center of Colombia. The Bogotá savanna has an extent of and an average altitude of . The savanna is situated in the Eastern Range ...
, were populated by the first humans in the late Pleistocene, as evidenced by finds in Pubenza (16,000 years BP), El Abra, Tibitó and others. Until roughly 30,000 years BP, the Bogotá savanna was covered by a large lake;
Lake Humboldt Lake Humboldt or Humboldt Lake is an endorheic basin lake in northern Churchill County and southern Pershing County in the state of Nevada in the United States. The lake has the name of Alexander von Humboldt, a German natural scientist. The la ...
. This glacial lake surrounded by snowy peaks was fed by the glaciers of
Sumapaz Sumapaz is the 20th locality of Bogotá, capital of Colombia. It is the largest of Bogotá's 20 localities, starting in the north at the edge of the urban frontier with Usme and stretching to the south at the border of Cundinamarca with the depar ...
in the south, based on analysis of debris flow deposits close to
Fusagasugá Fusagasugá (; ) or Fusa is a town and municipality in the Departments of Colombia, department of Cundinamarca Department, Cundinamarca, in central Colombia. It is located in the warm valley between the rivers Cuja River, Cuja and Panches, a centr ...
, yielding ages between 40,000 and 7000 years BP.Hoyos et al., 2015, p.265 The approximately large lake contained an island, presently known as the
Suba Hills Suba may refer to: Groups of people *Suba people (Kenya), a people of Kenya **Suba language *Suba people (Tanzania), a people of Tanzania * Subha (writers), alternatively spelt Suba, Indian writer duo Individual people *Suba (musician), Serbian- ...
(''Cerros de Suba''), in
Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
. Surrounding the lake, Pleistocene megafauna as ''
Glyptodont Glyptodonts are an extinct subfamily of large, heavily armoured armadillos. They arose in South America around 48 million years ago and spread to southern North America after the continents became connected several million years ago. The best-kn ...
s'',
giant sloth Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Caribbea ...
s,
mastodons A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...
and deer foraged. The lake retreated during the last 30,000 years, but remnants still existing today are the
Bogotá River The Bogotá River is a major river of the Cundinamarca department of Colombia. A right tributary of the Magdalena River, the Bogotá River crosses the region from the northeast to the southwest and passing along the western limits of Bogotá. The ...
and its tributaries,
Lake Herrera Lake Herrera is a small lake located at from the urban centre of Mosquera and about west of the capital Bogotá in Cundinamarca, Colombia. The Andean lake has made its name in the Herrera Period, the period in the history of central Colombia b ...
and the many
Wetlands of Bogotá Wetlands of Bogotá, Colombia are important areas of the capital city, and their development has become increasingly important for the area north of the Andes. A reserve for fauna and flora, the wetlands provide for the preservation and reproduct ...
. The timber line around Lake Humboldt, in older texts named ''Lake Bogotá'', has been estimated to have been lower than today.Zonneveld, 1968, p.205 During the latest Pleistocene and early Holocene, the first humans arrived on the
Andean The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...
high plateau at above sea level. They settled in caves and rock shelters in various locations on the Altiplano and had a
hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
lifestyle. The main ingredient of the early diet existing until
colonial times The ''Colonial Times'' was a newspaper in what is now the Australian state of Tasmania. It was established as the ''Colonial Times, and Tasmanian Advertiser'' in 1825 in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colon ...
was
white tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...
(''Odocoileus virginianus''). Fishing in the many lakes that existed in those times was another source of food for the people.


Description

Radiocarbon dating of a deeper lacustrine clay in the sequence of Tibitó revealed the site was in a lake environment around 52,000 years BP.Vogel & Lerman, 1969, p.358 Pleistocene lakes also existed in the Ubaté-Chiquinquirá Valley to the northwest and in the valley of
Soatá Soatá is a town and municipality in Boyacá Department, Colombia. Soatá is located on the western slopes of the Cordillera Oriental mountain range, at the northeast end of the Department of Boyacá. It is the capital of the Northern Boyacá P ...
, in the lower altitude northeasternmost part of the
Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', '' iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of northern South America. The ...
.Villarroel et al., 2001, p.79 The paleoclimate changed over the course of the latest Pleistocene and the Upper Pleniglacial was relatively humid, eroding earlier lagunal clays. The latest stage of the Pleniglacial was characterised by a cold and dry climate. In the valleys, hunter-gatherers lived. The original topography was covered in the Guantivá interstadial and El Abra stadial by humic sediments.Scott & Meyers, 1994, p.390 At Tibitó remains of the extinct
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
megafauna In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...
''
Cuvieronius ''Cuvieronius'' is an extinct New World genus of gomphothere, named after the French naturalist Georges Cuvier. Alive, specimens typically stood about tall at the shoulder, weighed about and would have superficially resembled a modern elephant ...
'', ''
Haplomastodon ''Notiomastodon'' is an extinct proboscidean genus of gomphotheres (a distant relative to modern elephants) endemic to South America from the Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene. ''Notiomastodon'' specimens reached a size similar to t ...
'' and ''
Equus amerhippus ''Amerhippus'' is an extinct South America, South American horse of uncertain taxonomic identity. It is sometimes classified as a subgenus of the genus ''Equus (genus), Equus'', containing several extinct species of horses that lived in South Ame ...
'' and extant
white tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...
and
crab-eating fox The crab-eating fox (''Cerdocyon thous''), also known as the forest fox, wood fox, bushdog (not to be confused with the bush dog) or maikong, is an extant species of medium-sized canid endemic to the central part of South America since at least ...
have been found set in a circle. The bones were burnt and unburnt and mixed with stone artifacts and limestone chunks. The most important finds of ''Cuvieronius'' come from the Eastern Cordillera, with main sites Tibitó and
Mosquera Mosquera is a Spanish surname (first name) originally from Galicia (Spain). The family crest states (Spanish) Gallego. It derives from the mansion of the family's founder, Ramiro de Mosquera. In the fifth century, it was already linked to ''Moscos ...
.Prado et al., 2003, p.353 156 unifacial stone artifacts, of which 41% knives, pieces of carbon and bone tools have been found and analysed by
Gonzalo Correal Urrego Gonzalo Correal Urrego ( Gachalá, Colombia, 23 October 1939) is a Colombian anthropologist, palaeontologist and archaeologist.
.Dillehay, 1999, p.208Correal Urrego, 1990, p.74 Ninetynine percent of the finds were from local origin.Gnecco & Aceituno, 2004, p.155 The bones, showing a relative higher abundance of ''Haplomastodon'' than ''Cuvieronius'' and the extinct American horse,Correal Urrego, 1990, p.76 have been carbon dated to be 11,740 ± 110 years old. This was confirmed by palynological analysis, that also indicated a
páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...
climate at the time.Correal Urrego, 1990, p.77 This makes the site slightly younger than the oldest;
El Abra El Abra is the name given to an extensive archeological site, located in the valley of the same name. El Abra is situated in the east of the municipality Zipaquirá extending to the westernmost part of Tocancipá in the department of Cundinamarc ...
, dated at 12,400 ± 160 years BP. In the vicinity of Tibitó,
rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...
has been discovered.


See also

*
List of Muisca and pre-Muisca sites This is a list of Muisca and pre-Muisca archaeological sites; sites on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, where archaeological evidence has been discovered of the Muisca and their ancestors of the Herrera, preceramic and prehistorical periods. Ove ...
*
Aguazuque Aguazuque is a pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the western part of the municipality Soacha, close to the municipalities Mosquera and San Antonio del Tequendama in Cundinamarca, Colombia. It exists of evidences of human settlement of ...
,
Tequendama Tequendama is a preceramic and ceramic archaeological site located southeast of Soacha, Cundinamarca, Colombia, a couple of kilometers east of Tequendama Falls. It consists of multiple evidences of late Pleistocene to middle Holocene populati ...
,
Checua Checua is a preceramic open area archaeological site in Nemocón, Cundinamarca, Colombia. The site is located north of the town centre.Gómez Mejía, 2012, p.146 At Checua, thousands of stone and bone tools, stone flakes and human remains have ...
*
El Abra El Abra is the name given to an extensive archeological site, located in the valley of the same name. El Abra is situated in the east of the municipality Zipaquirá extending to the westernmost part of Tocancipá in the department of Cundinamarc ...
,
Gonzalo Correal Urrego Gonzalo Correal Urrego ( Gachalá, Colombia, 23 October 1939) is a Colombian anthropologist, palaeontologist and archaeologist.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tibito
Prehistory of Colombia Former populated places in Colombia Pre-Clovis archaeological sites in the Americas Muisca and pre-Muisca sites Altiplano Cundiboyacense Andean preceramic Pleistocene Colombia Pleistocene paleontological sites of South America Tourist attractions in Cundinamarca Department Archaeological sites in Colombia