Offerings played a fundamental role in the religious practices of the ancient societies that inhabited the Eastern Range. For it was through them that they sought to maintain balance and equilibrium in the world.

Offerings of gold, wood, stone beads, shell and bone artefacts, finger nails, hair, semen, tobacco and coca and other hallucinatory substances, drinks, food, plants and herbs, textiles, pottery vessels, baskets, quartz crystals, coal and large quantities of emeralds all embodied in their shape and materials some of the basic principles of the extensive system of opposites around which the cosmos was organised, for these people.

These principles came to life when the objects were left at sacred sites, such as in rivers, caves or lakes or on agricultural terraces, mountain peaks or hilltops, the floors of homes, or in shrines and tombs. The priests went to these places to leave offerings which, by virtue of their knowledge and their prophetic acts, they believed had the necessary powers to help them face up to natural phenomena or social events that affected them because of alterations to the dual cosmic balance.

Objects like 'tunjos' or 'santillos', which were human- or animal-shaped gold and tumbaga figurines, or personal, everyday objects, or scenes of everyday life, were generally offered up in pairs or groups. The two figures embodied a pair of opposites, like man and woman.

This releasing of the powers that were in the objects was nevertheless not achieved just by having the priest offer them up in these sacred places. Communication with the immaterial world was considerably more complex, and the benefits that could be gained depended on the precision of the whole process. It was carried out at times established by one or more priests at ceremonies involving prayers, chants and dances the priests themselves chose, based on what was needed from the offering.

Muisca and the Gold Museum Exhibition

Chieftains, Priests, Captains and Criers

Religious Life and Offerings

Eldorado Raft

The Three Goldwork Styles