Overcoming Centralization in the Ancient Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta: Toward a Novel Model of Indigenous Low-Density Urbanism in Northern Colombia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Theorizing Prehistoric Large Low-Density Settlements beyond Urbanism and Other Conventional Classificatory Conventions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper develops a novel model to understand the social organization of landscapes and urban settlements in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. This region's history mainly stems from the imposition of European categories to interpret the sociopolitical organization of Indigenous communities, often suggesting that the very chiefs and ethnonyms that emerged in the colonial era had always existed. Said imposition introduced and reified ethnic and cultural categories, such as Tairona, Taironaca, Betoma, Posigüeica, and Carbón. Later, scholars drew on these colonial documents and often proposed that "the Tairona" were the most powerful chiefdom in the Sierra Nevada, concealing the other communities and peoples throughout the area. This account led archaeologists to expect evidence of political centers from which wealthy elites presided over smaller villages and subject populations. In consequence, and despite earlier reports of hundreds of ancient stone settlements beneath the tree canopy, most archaeological research has largely focused on Teyuna-Ciudad Perdida and Pueblito. This paper presents evidence from recent surveys, mapping, architectural analysis, and excavations that reveal a different scenario: a multi-centric or even non-centralized urban landscape, a case of low-density urbanism that redefines theories of this coastal mountain range of northern Colombia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Theorizing Prehistoric Large Low-Density Settlements beyond Urbanism and Other Conventional Classificatory Conventions   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38558.0