Checua is a preceramic open area

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

in Nemocón, Cundinamarca,

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The site is located north of the town centre.Gómez Mejía, 2012, p.146 At Checua, thousands of stone and bone tools, stone flakes and human remains have been found, indicating human occupation from around 8500 to 3000 years BP. Main

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

for Checua is

Ana María Groot Ana María Groot de Mahecha (born 29 August 1952 in Bogotá) is a Colombian historian, archaeologist, anthropologist and associate professor at the Department of Anthropology of the National University of Colombia, Universidad Nacional de Colombi ...

, who published the results of her research in 1992.Groot de Mahecha, 1992

Background

The Altiplano Cundiboyacense has been inhabited at least since 12,500 years ago. The first human settlers migrated via the

Darién Gap The Darién Gap (, , ) is a geographic region that connects the Americas, American continents, stretching across southern Panama's Darién Province and the northern portion of Colombia's Chocó Department. Consisting of a large drainage basin, ...

from Central America to South America and led a

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

lifestyle. They populated the rock shelters of the high plateau in the Andes, then still with abundant Pleistocene megafauna as '' Cuvieronius'', '' Haplomastodon'', '' Equus amerhippus'' and giant sloths. During this preceramic phase, the population shifted from rock shelters to open area settlement, of which Galindo and Checua are among the oldest. A later site in Soacha, Cundinamarca; Aguazuque is comparable to Checua. During the second millennium before present, the population increased and settlements became bigger. This is evidenced in the findings at the salt mine of Nemocón.Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.7

Description

Geology

Checua is located in a valley of the

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. (Do not confuse with The Altiplano or the Altiplano Nariñense, both fur ...

and its geology is determined by the

Andean orogeny The Andean orogeny () is an ongoing process of orogeny that began in the Early Jurassic and is responsible for the rise of the Andes mountains. The orogeny is driven by a reactivation of a long-lived subduction system along the western margin o ...

. Checua lies in the middle of a rich

halite Halite ( ), commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride ( Na Cl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pi ...

area, with salt mines in Nemocón, Zipaquirá and Tausa surrounding the site. The sedimentary sequence consists of the oldest outcropping units of the

Villeta Group The Villeta Group () is a group (geology), geological group of the Cordillera Oriental (Colombia), Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, to the west of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. The group, a sequence of shales, limestones and sandstones, is s ...

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

age. This sequence is followed by the sandstone formations of the Guadalupe Group,

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

in age. Overlying the

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

section is the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

Paleocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), ...

Guaduas Formation. Due to the Andean tectonic movements, most of the Tertiary section is eroded or non-deposited and the Guaduas Formation is overlain by the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

Sabana Formation.Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.11

Climate

The climate of the area around Checua is constant throughout the year with an average maximum temperature of and an average minimum of . The yearly precipitation varies from to , mostly in short erosional showers. The winds can be strong and aid the erosive process of the water.Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.12

Vegetation

The vegetation was of a lower altitude dry forest type with native species '' Dodanae viscosa'', '' Baccharis sp.'', ''

Prunus capuli ''Prunus serotina'', commonly called black cherry,World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, Second Edition'. CRC Press; 19 April 2016. . p. 833–. wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub in the r ...

'', '' Xilosma speculiferum'', '' Duratana mutissi'', ''

Lupinus ''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet, is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centre of diversity, centres of diversity in North America, North and South A ...

sp.'',

dividivi ''Libidibia coriaria'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Caesalpinia coriaria'', is a Legume, leguminous tree or large shrub native to the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and northern and western South America. Common names include divi-divi, c ...

(''Tara spinosa''), ''

Solanum ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solana ...

sp.'', '' Hesperolemes heterophyla'' and

fique Fique is a natural fibre that grows in the leaves of plants in the genus '' Furcraea''. Common names include fique, cabuya, pita, penca, penco, maguey, cabui, chuchao and coquiza. History The Indigenous peoples of the Americas extracted and use ...

(''Agave sp.'').Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.13

Stone tools

The Checua site has been divided into nine stratigraphical units of sands and clays.Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.17 More than 1750 lithic tools have been found in the units, with a highest frequency in units 4 and 5b. They mostly consist of scrapers and knives. Furthermore, 2820 stone flakes, interpreted as materials to build tools have been discovered, with a highest frequency in unit 8.Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.28

Bone tools

Various bone tools have been found in Checua. The type is very similar to those found at Aguazuque and Tequendama. Apart from tools, also a

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

made from bone has been uncovered. This bone

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

was discovered in stratigraphic unit 5b at a depth of .Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.56

Tooth enamel

Dating of the

tooth enamel Tooth enamel is one of the four major Tissue (biology), tissues that make up the tooth in humans and many animals, including some species of fish. It makes up the normally visible part of the tooth, covering the Crown (tooth), crown. The other ...

of one of the remains, using

Electronic Paramagnetic Resonance Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) or electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is a method for studying materials that have unpaired electrons. The basic concepts of EPR are analogous to those of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), but the spin ...

(EPR), provided an age of 7850 ± 190 years BP.Sandoval & Almanza, 2012, p.251 Using the same method, in 2014 another tooth enamel was analysed, providing an age of 5021 ± 202 years BP.Carvajal et al., 2014, p.128

Human occupation phases

Analysis of the various stratigraphic levels and the tools found, led to the identification of four zones of human occupation within a total time span of 5500 years (6500–1000 years BCE).Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.61 The first zone, dated to about 8500 to 8200 years BP, contains mostly scrapers and perforators used for the elaboration of meat and animal skins. The second zone of occupation, lasting from about 8200 to 7800 years BP, consists of various burial sites.Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.64-77 Here, also scrapers and perforators were found, together with the main ingredients of the diet of the people;

white tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known Common name, commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North America, North, Central America, Central and South America. It is the ...

and

guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy ( ), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus ''Cavia'', family Caviidae. Animal fancy, Breeders tend to use the name "cavy" for the ani ...

.Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.66 In this zone, the bone flute has been unearthed.Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.76 The third level corresponds to the seventh stratigraphical unit where many bone fragments were found. The unit has been compared to Aguazuque for dating at around 5000 years BP, possibly lasting till 4000 years BP.Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.80 As is the case with Aguazuque, the fourth and uppermost zone has been disturbed by modern agricultural activities and the presence of glass indicates contamination with postcolonial influence. A top age for the sequence has not been provided, but an occupation until 3000 years BP is suggested.Groot de Mahecha, 1992, p.83

References

Bibliography

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