The last room of the Zenú Gold Museum of the Banco de la República in Cartagena de Indias describes the ingenious system put in place during thousands of years for periodic flooding to benefit the inhabitants living in the plains promoting the splendour of Zenú society whose descendents currently live in the region.

The Magdalena, Cauca and San Jorge rivers flood the plains for eight months each year and leave behind a fertile deposit of sediments; the flat, clayey soils hinder the draining off of this water to the sea.

Unlike pre-Hispanic times, when those who lived on the floodable plains made the most of rises in river level, nowadays people suffer the loss of their homes, possessions, harvests and cattle, year after year.

An enormous web on the earth

The Zenúes who lived on these floodable plains transformed the landscape in order to make vast areas of land suitable for homes, transport and the growing of crops, by means of an ingenious water control system. It was a long process, one which was at its peak between 200 B.C. and 1000 A.D.

The waterway system consisted of an enormous network of canals and raised fields of different dimensions and layouts which, with the passing of time, came to cover an area of more than 500,000 hectares in the San Jorge basin and 150,000 hectares around the River Sinú.

Perpendicular to the main watercourses, the Zenúes dug canals up to four kilometres long and ten metres apart to control large volumes of water. Water from the rising river levels flowed through these canals to lower areas. There, the current slackened off and the water was directed into short channels in areas where crops were grown.

The direction and length of the canals that were dug followed the bends and curves of the main watercourses. Viewed form the air, some sectors look like open fans, while others look more like plaits or fish bones.

Areas of up to 2,000 hectares were made suitable for extensive agriculture by building groups of short canals and ridges between 30 and 70 metres long, arranged in different ways. As water levels rose, the water was directed through long canals that were dug perpendicularly to the main flows.

When the water level fell, sufficient moisture was left in the canals, and their beds were covered with sediments rich in nutrients. These were gathered up and deposited on the ridges, which were thus fertilised and ready for crop growing.

Some sectors were devoted to a single crop, while others produced several crops: coca (Erythroxylum sp.), corn (Zea mays), yams (Ipomoea batatas), pumpkins (Curcubita maxima), chilis (Capsicum sp.), marrows (Cucurbita mixta), manioc (Manihot esculenta) and many varieties of fruit.

In view of the abundance of fish in the floodable area, there was a surplus, and this was used for bartering purposes. The Zenúes stocked up on large quantities of fish, turtles and other reptiles from marshes, streams, main rivers and canals.

Apart from the Zenú waterway system, there were other drainage and irrigation works in America, aimed at improving soil conditions for crop-growing purposes. Floodable lowland, high areas and lake and river basins were adapted from very early times, although the maximum extent of these works was not more than 100,000 hectares.
Elsewhere in Colombia, they are to be found on the Bogotá plateau and the eastern plains, and in the San Juan valley on the Pacific coast.

Houses and settlements

To protect themselves from floods, the Zenúes constructed elongated, artificial platforms three of four metres high, and on these they built their homes. Ordinary people lived along the natural or artificial channels, which formed small hamlets in some areas.

Larger settlements were strategically located for ceremonial centres or routes that products passed along. Around 1600, Friar Pedro Simón wrote the following about Ayapel:

"...it was as curious (its layout) as those in Finzenú, because the village was laid out in streets and squares, with these and the houses all well marked out and clean, and large numbers of wonderfully cultivated vegetable gardens...".

Palm, thatch, reeds and trumpetwood bark are used today for building rural houses. The chroniclers of the Conquest mentioned that the Zenúes used similar materials to build their homes:

"...they were all large, with high walls, and made almost in the same way as the Spaniards build their own homes". (Friar Pedro de Aguado, 1570).

The european conquest brought slavery to the indigenous groups. Their population declined and they were herded together in reserves. The Zenú village of Mexión would come to be the San Andrés de Sotavento reserve, which is still home to Zenúes today.

On the Caribbean plains lived Spaniards, creoles, afro-descendants, indigenous groups and adventurers of Arabic origin. It was the exchanging of knowledge, customs and economies between these that gradually gave rise to the current mestizo culture. Age-old traditions survive in fabrics, canoes, the eating of tubers, myths and tales of spells and half-man, half-animal characters like the well-known alligator-man who lives in the river, in lakes or in gold palaces under the waters. These stories have been put to music with pipes, whistles, maracas and drums, instruments that were played by the musicians who adorn the pre-Hispanic staff heads that were made using the lost wax casting method.

Reed, cotton and metal fabrics are a living tradition amongst the peoples of the Coast. In San Andrés de Sotavento and the surrounding area, the well-known "sombrero vueltiao" or Sinú hat is still made today, using techniques which date back to pre-Hispanic times.

Hammocks, trammels and fishing nets are woven in villages along the river and the marsh, and in Morroa, women grow and spin cotton and make hammocks and "chinchorros". These are mass produced for commercial purposes in San Jacinto.

The “vueltiao” hat has been a Zenú male attire since pre-Hispanic times, as it can be seen in archaeological objects. Today it is used not only in the Colombian Atlantic coast, but in the whole country.

The “vueltiao” hat is produced with fibres of the “fleche” reed (Gynerium sagitatum). Its designs or “pintas”, obtained when black fibres are plaited upon white ones, are identity elements of the indigenous groups of San Andres de Sotavento indigenous reserve. They are also abstractions of animals, plants, flowers or heavenly bodies depicted in geometrical drawings like the rooster’s eye, the dog’s track, the spider, the “”ñeque’s” (Desyprocta sp.) tooth, the orange flower, etc.

You must definitely visit Cartagena de Indias and the Zenú Gold Museum in the main square.

The millenary experience of this community, the magnitude of its works and how it managed environment are bewildering and invite us to reflect on how we wish to build our own future.

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