The mountainous regions of San Agustín and the La Plata valley, near the headwaters of the River Magdalena, were inhabited continuously from 1000 B.C. to the time of the European conquest. During the Formative, Regional Classical and Recent periods, the communities of farmers, potters and sculptors gradually grew in size and came to live in increasingly more centralised villages.

During the Formative Period, between 1000 B.C. and 1 A.D., the first social hierarchies began to develop in the small, agricultural communities. It was common practice during this period to remove the bones from tombs after a certain period of time and to keep them in pottery funerary urns. These were placed in shaft and chamber tombs, sometimes with gold or tumbaga nose rings.

In the Regional Classical Period, which likewise lasted virtually a thousand years - from 1 to 900 A.D. -, social differences became more pronounced in the religious field, and funerary monuments were built. Few luxury items were placed in tombs: some of them contained diadems, necklaces, vessels or wooden objects. Certain Regional Classical Period leaders were also buried with regalia that included gold objects, although it would appear to have not been so common as in Calima to wear and accumulate gold ornaments. One notable piece of goldwork is a pendant in the form of a winged fish, while another attractive item is a small pendant that resembles the stone statues that were common in the region during the Regional Classical Period. The most outstanding feature of this period, in fact, was that communities stressed the power and prestige of their chieftains by building funerary monuments for them, together with statues carved out of volcanic tuff and covered with mounds of earth. These sculptures with their aggressive feline jaws have nowadays made the Upper Magdalena region famous.

During the Recent Period, which extended from 900 to 1500 A.D., the population increased, but people still lived in the same villages, with new leaders whose power was based on controlling the economy. Recent Period tombs contain pottery vessels that were for domestic use.

San Agustín and the Gold Museum Exhibition

San Agustín: Development of a Hierarchical Society

The Art of Carving Stone

Archaeological Parks: San Agustín