Miguel Triana Ruiz de Cote (26 November 1859 – 29 April 1931) was a Colombian

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and Muisca scholar. He is best known for his 1922 publication ''La Civilización Chibcha''; "The Muisca civilisation". Triana wrote a number of books about the Muisca and their culture.Publications Miguel Triana
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Miguel Triana especially contributed to the knowledge of the

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

and the creation of

rock art In archaeology, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type al ...

throughout the

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', ''iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andes, Andean highlands of what is today Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, Spanis ...

. Triana was the first Colombian investigator relating the Muisca culture with the

pictograph A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...

s.López Estupiñán, 2011, p.7 He described hundreds of rock paintings and carvings in his book ''El jeroglífico Chibcha''.Martínez & Botiva, 2004, p.13

Biography

Miguel Triana was born on 26 November 1859 in the

Granadine Confederation The Granadine Confederation () was a short-lived federal republic established in 1858 as a result of a constitutional change replacing the Republic of New Granada. It consisted of the present-day nations of Colombia and Panama and parts of north ...

capital Bogotá as son of general Domingo de San Vicente y de los Santos Triana Loboguerrero and Dolores (or Clotilde) Ruiz de Cote.Miguel Triana
at GeniBateman, 1973, p.13 He had a brother Felipe Triana Ruiz de Cote. He attended the Colegio del Rosario until age 18 and studied

civil Civil may refer to: *Civility, orderly behavior and politeness *Civic virtue, the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society *Civil (journalism) ''The Colorado Sun'' is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It lau ...

and

military engineering Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics b ...

at the ''Escuela de Ingeniería del Coronel Antonio de Narváez'' where he graduated in 1880. Triana worked as an engineer for the train line of Puerto Wilches, finished in 1883, the central northern highway and train tracks in

Cúcuta Cúcuta (), officially San José de Cúcuta, is a Colombian municipality, capital of the department of Norte de Santander and nucleus of the Metropolitan Area of Cúcuta. The city is located in the homonymous valley, at the foot of the East ...

and on irrigation projects in the Valley of Sogamoso as part of a study to dewater

Lake Tota Lake Tota () is the largest lake in Colombia, located in the east of Boyacá department, inside the Sugamuxi Province, it is the source of the Upia River which flows into the Orinoco River basin. The major town on the lake is Aquitania, locate ...

. From 1890 Triana was director of public works in Nariño and from 1917 manager of the Municipal Tramway of Bogotá. Miguel Triana was professor in physics, hydraulics, geometry, trigonometry and drawing at the faculty of Engineering of the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá. He was affiliated with various organisations in Colombia, among others: ''Sociedad Físico-Literaria de Bogotá'', ''El Ateneo'', ''Sociedad de Ingenieros Civiles de los Estados Unidos'', ''Sociedad Colombiana de Ciencias Naturales'' and the ''Sociedad Colombiana de Ingenieros'', founded by Triana in 1887. Triana was interested in the former inhabitants 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 ...

where he was born and studied the history of the

Muisca The Muisca (also called the Chibcha) are indigenous peoples in Colombia and were a Pre-Columbian culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The Muisca spe ...

(also called "Chibcha", as the

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

they speak) and in 1922 he published his mayor work ''La Civilización Chibcha'' Other works are ''El jeroglífico Chibcha'' and ''Las leyendas Chibchas''. The former work was the result of forty years of studying rock art in Boyacá, Cundinamarca,

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and other parts of Colombia.Description Muisca script and rock art
/ref> Miguel Triana married Juana Echeverri and the couple got one son, Jorge Felipe Triana Echeverri. Triana died on 29 April 1931 in his city of birth.
/ref>

Books

* 1970 - ''El jeroglífico Chibcha'' - posthumously * 1950 - ''Por el sur de Colombia: excursión pintoresca y científica al Putumayo'' - posthumously * 1924 - ''Petroglifos de la Mesa Central de Colombia'' * 1922 - ''La civilización Chibcha'' * 1915 - ''Improvements for the mouth of the Magdalena River'' * 1913 - ''Al Meta'' * 1907 - ''Por el sur de Colombia: excursión pintoresca y científica al Putumayo'' * 2021 - ''Por el sur de Colombia, reedición de Editorial Universidad del Cauca'
https://www.unicauca.edu.co/editorial/

References

Notable works by Miguel Triana

* *

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Triana, Miguel 1859 births 1931 deaths Colombian engineers 20th-century Colombian historians Scholars of the Muisca civilization People from Bogotá Muisca mythology and religion

Biography

Books

See also

References

Notable works by Miguel Triana

Bibliography