In the historic center of the Colombian capital is the Bogotá Gold Museum, which has one of the largest exhibitions of pre-Columbian art with thousands of gold, ceramic and lithic objects, which tell the history and sacred rituals of the societies. indigenous people of the country.
Most of the more than 34,000 pieces exhibited to the public are carved in gold, in figures represented in nose rings, pectorals, crowns, earrings, necklaces and other elements that are an example of the sacred and ancestral value that this precious metal represented for these people.
Among the iconic figures that can be admired is the Muisca Balsa, an exceptional piece that represents the proclamation ceremony of the indigenous chief, who sailed the Guatavita lagoon completely covered in gold and which gives rise to the famous legend of El Dorado, that place. where among the Spanish there was a myth of a city made entirely of gold.
“Here we can find the history of men, women and children who lived in this territory more than 2,000 years ago and who left us a legacy, stories and techniques, ways of seeing the world and understanding the natural environment that we see today. It can be very useful for us to understand ourselves in this place we live in,” he told the Voice of AmericaAna María González, anthropologist at the Gold Museum.
During the tour of the four rooms, you can also find other figures made of gold of great archaeological value in the country, such as ornaments of Quimbaya women and female pectorals from the Zenú and San Agustín cultures.
“It is an example of what our ancestral cultures were really like, their capacity for transformation and creation is marvelous, where, without any technology, they were wonderful goldsmiths,” he commented to the VOA Aura Niño, one of the hundreds of visitors the museum receives.
In the different spaces, the intimate relationship with gold of the indigenous communities Calima, Muisca, Quimbaya, San Agustín, Pasto, Tairona and Zenú, from the regions of the Andes, the Pacific and the Caribbean, stands out.
An entry ticket costs about $2; However, on Sundays admission is completely free for any public. The museum was inaugurated in 1939 by the Bank of the Republic of Colombia, with the acquisition of the main piece of the place, the Quimbaya “poporo”.
The poporo, which measures about 23.5 centimeters in height and has a weight of around 777.7 grams, according to data from the Gold Museum, is a container that the Quimbaya indigenous people used to store the lime with which they chewed. the coca leaf in each of their rituals.
“In the year 39, the Bank of the Republic received the famous Quimbaya poporo, which is this flagship piece of the museum, so that it could be taken care of by the bank because it was in danger of being lost. Many of the pre-Hispanic gold objects from this country were taken out of the country melted and part of our history was lost,” González explained.
The museum, which has other locations spread across different cities in Colombia, has been highlighted by National Geographic magazine as one of the best history museums in the world, for its unmatched goldsmithing pieces and one of the most important pre-Hispanic samples in America. Latina.
“I don’t know of many examples of places around the world that have a collection of this caliber, of this significance for the country. “It is the creation of a national narrative that is sometimes forgotten, a pre-Columbian part,” said Mario Brume at the end of the tour, who is part of the nearly 630,000 visitors the Gold Museum receives each year.
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