Publicomos

Réf.

43716

Type

technical report

Titre

Compendio documental El Campo de Gigantes de Mosquera: paisaje patrimonial

Langues

Spanish

Auteurs

Martínez Celis, Diego

Auteurs institutionnels

Alcaldía de Mosquera

Lieu de publication

Mosquera

Pays de publication

Colombia

Maison d'édition

Alcaldía de Mosquera

Date

27/09/2023

Pages

147

Mots-clés

archaeological heritage / natural heritage / palaeontological sites / natural landscapes / cultural landscapes / geography / geology / history / indigenous peoples / archaeological sites / rock art / economy / heritage at risk / rock art sites / rock paintings / natural sites / prehistoric sites / transmission / landscape interpretation / human settlement sites / mixed properties

Pays mentionnés

Colombia

Monuments et sites

Campo de Gigantes, Mosquera, Cundinamarca, Colombia / Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia

Résumé en anglais

One afternoon in mid-1789, during a reconnaissance trip around Santafé, the viceroy of New Granada, Don Francisco Gil y Lemos, noticed with amazement a large number of bones of considerable size emerging from the ground in the middle of a solitary place in the southwest of the Bogotá Savannah. Inquiring among the locals, he learned that this site had been known, since time immemorial, as the “Field of Giants”, because it was believed that said remains would have belonged to an extinct race of gigantic human beings. Some time later, and thanks to science, it was understood that they were actually fossils of large extinct mammals, known collectively as “megafauna of the Pleistocene period” (between 3 million and 10 thousand years old). After the analysis of various documents and data presented in this compendium, it can be assured that said “Field of Giants” corresponds today to the mountainous area to the southwest of the Bogotá savanna, where the municipalities of Mosquera, Madrid, Bojacá and Soacha, also known under place names such as “Mondoñedo”, “Cerros de Fute”, “Cerros de Los Andes”, “Cerros de Balsillas”, “Cerrogordo” or “Rocas de Usca”, among others.In addition to its paleontological character, the “Campo de Gigantes” is an important archaeological site, where evidence of the first settlers of the Sabana has been found, in the sites of Vistahermosa, Galindo and Aguazuque, and of the Herrera and Muisca periods, as well as as numerous sites with rock art such as the Rocas de Usca or the Cerro de las Cátedras, among others; all framed in a particular ecological environment where, in an exceptional way, the semi-desert environment (subxerophytic) and the wetland environment (La Herrera lagoon) coexist.
This territory also has striking sectors of geological interest, such as the “Zabrinsky Desert”, erosive gullies, caves and rocky outcrops; and has been a reference for myths dating back to pre-Hispanic times and an oral tradition related to the imaginary of the ancestral indigenous presence with which communities continue to be linked to the territory in the present. All these elements make up a set that can be interpreted as a Heritage Landscape, in the sense that they are closely linked to the territory and are evidence of various processes, of a natural, cultural and social nature, and their continuous interaction over time.

Document joint

INFORME FINAL GIGANTES.pdf

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)