The largest group of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in South America stands in a wild, spectacular landscape. Gods and mythical animals are skilfully represented in styles ranging from abstract to realist. These works of art display the creativity and imagination of a northern Andean culture that flourished from the 1st to the 8th century.
Set in a stunning wild landscape is South America’s largest collection of devotional monuments and megalithic sculptures. Deities and mythical animals are depicted with the utmost mastery in styles ranging from abstraction to realism. These works of art testify to the creativity and vision of a culture of the northern Andes that reached its apogee between the first and eighth centuries.
在南美洲一片原始壮观的风景区内矗立着最大的宗教建筑和巨石雕塑群. 传说中的动物，从抽象主义到现实主义，风格各异。 这些艺术杰作显示了1 至8世纪盛极一时的北安第斯文化的创造力和想象力.
Megalithic teams and sculptors from Latin America are strong in the country. Martial and military masters prepare for a variety of lifestyles, in a summarized and realistic way. This is a videoconference assignment on their two possible harvests, assigned in the region of the Seventh and in Chapters I-VIII.
In the middle of an impressive herbaceous landscape, this park is home to the largest collection of megalithic monuments and sculptures in South America. The depictions of mythological divinities and beasts are executed with marvellous mastery in other styles, ranging from abstraction to realism. These works of art mobilize the artistic and imaginative force of a culture of the northern Andean region that flourished between the first and eighth centuries.
Het Archeologisch park San Agustín ligt op 2 kilometer van de gelijknamige stad. Het archeologisch gebied strekt zich uit over 2.000 vierkante kilometer en ligt op een hoogte van 1.800 meter. In dit wilde en spectaculaire landschap is de grootste groep religieuze monumenten en megalithische beeldhouwwerken in Zuid-Amerika te vinden. De sculpturen stellen goden en mythische dieren voor en ze zijn vakkundig afgebeeld in stijlen die variëren van abstract tot realistisch. De kunstwerken tonen de creativiteit en verbeelding van een noordelijke Andes cultuur, die bloeide van de 1e tot de 8e eeuw na Christus.
Brief synthesis
The San Agustín Archaeological Park is located in the Colombian Massif of the Colombian southwestern Andes, on terrains of the municipalities of San Agustín and Isnos, in the department of Huila. Three separate properties, totalling 116 ha, comprise the Archaeological Park: San Agustín (conformed by the Mesita A, Mesita B, Mesita C, La Estación, Alto de Lavapatas and Fuente de Lavapatas sites), Alto de los Ídolos and Alto de Las Piedras. The park is at the core of San Agustín archaeological zone featuring the largest complex of pre-Columbian megalithic funerary monuments and statuary, burial mounds, terraces, funerary structures, stone statuary and the Fuente de Lavapatas site, a religious monument carved in the stone bed of a stream.
The ceremonial sites are located in the middle of settlement concentrations and involve giant mounds linked together through terraces, paths and earthen causeways. The earthen mounds, some of which measure 30 m in diameter, built giant stone tombs from the regional classical era (1-900 AD) of the elite Americans of the well-documented chieftain societies that evolved in the region from around 1000 BC. C. , one of the maximum. important. first complex societies in America. The tombs feature elaborate funerary architecture of stone corridors, columns, sarcophagi and impressive giant statues representing gods or supernatural beings, an expression of the connection between deceased ancestors and the supernatural force that marks the institutionalization of the force in the region. In the municipality of San Agustín, the main archaeological monuments are Las Mesitas, where ancestors built synthetic mounds, terraces, funerary structures and stone statues; the Lavapatas Fountain, a devout monument excavated in the stone bed of a stream; and the Bosque de Las Estatuas, where there are examples of stone statues from all over the region. Alto de Los Idolos is on the right bank of the Magdalena River and the smaller Alto de las Piedras is further north: both are in the municipality of San José de Isnos. Like the greater doleading of San Agustín, they are rich in monuments of all kinds. Much of the doleading is a rich archaeological landscape, with ancient road lines, box boundaries, drainage ditches and synthetic platforms, as well as funerary monuments. It was sacred land, a place of pilgrimage and ancestor worship. These hieratic guards, some of which measure more than four meters high and weigh several tons, are carved from blocks of tuff and volcanic rock. They protected burial rooms, monolithic sarcophagi and burial sites.
Monuments are located in the political and demographic centers of chieftaincy societies that have consolidated their strength through complex ceremonial activities and the production of wisdom. The chiefdoms of San Agustín and the remarkable statuary of their tombs constitute an exceptional trajectory of political centralization in a rugged environment and without a concentration of economic wealth and, as such, have a wonderful clinical and aesthetic importance.
Criterion (iii): The wealth and concentration of elaborate monumental burials and associated megalithic statuary from the sites in San Agustín Archaeological Park bears vivid witness to the artistic creativity and imagination of a prehispanic culture that flowered in the hostile tropical environment of the Northern Andes. It symbolizes the ability of pre-Hispanic societies of northern South America to create and express in stone and earth his unique form of social organization and worldview.
Integrity
The San Agustín Archaeological Park contains four different sites, whose barriers are explained to come from the largest concentrations of mounds with megalithic statues from the regional Classic era (1-900 AD). A third of the six hundred known statues of Saint Augustine and part of the 40 known monumental mounds spread throughout the Alto Magdalena region are found within the barriers of the archaeological park. These 20 mounds come with the most gigantic examples and also the most elaborate. At the “Mesitas” site, 80 hectares of park have 8 mounds, more than a hundred statues and all the most gigantic demographic and ceremonial centers, which contain not only the oldest and giant tomb sites (Mesita A and Mesita C), but also the residential remains of the elite families who ruled their society, built the monuments and used them as burials for their most sensible leaders. Therefore, the park features not only a number of distinct monuments but also the remains of the core communities that built them and lived along them. Despite the effects of herbal phenomena on curtain remains, conservation movements have preserved their integrity. Significant challenges remain in maintaining the integrity of a giant like this, which faces pressure to expand agricultural use and the expansion of local communities.
Authenticity
The archaeological sites of St. Augustine were abandoned around 1350 AD. They were rediscovered in the 18th and 19th centuries, leading to the looting and destruction of most of the monumental tombs in search of funerary furniture that turned out to be very rare. Erosion, earthquakes, and human intervention displaced the stone slabs and contents of many tombs, but this did not destroy the original funerary architecture. The main values of the monuments of St. Augustine have been preserved, expressed in the megalithic stone elements, the funerary design, and the stone sculptures and paintings. , as well as the original structural techniques and related archaeological sites. Direct intervention is limited to studies and conservation needs. Although the sites suffered from looting for a long time, the creation of the park in 1931 provided good and solid enough cover for the monuments and the surrounding ceremonial center.
The San Agustín Archaeological Park was created by Law 103 of 1931 and declared a National Monument and National Archaeological Park in 1993 (Decree 774). The Colombian Constitution establishes that archaeological heritage houses (including national archaeological parks) are national and inalienable assets. for the coverage of Colombia’s archaeological heritage are well implemented in San Agustín Park. The existing regulations, in addition to the General Law of Culture (No. 397 of 1997, amended by Law 1185 of 2009) prohibit excavations or other archaeological interventions without a permit issued through ICANH, are strictly enforced and strict measures are taken to prevent looting and trafficking of cultural property. Research and safeguarding of the conservation measures provided for in the law are carried out on an ongoing basis.
Through annual plans and the implementation of a comprehensive control plan for the World Heritage site, the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History-ICANH guarantees the effective preservation and conservation of archaeological heritage, minimizing threats to funerary structures and statues. These threats are accompanied by strong winds and heavy rains that cause year-round erosion, soil instability, and bedrock erosion caused by water flowing over patterns carved into the bedrock (at the Fuente de Lavapatas site).
The open-air public display of 16 reconstructed burial mounds and plenty of megalithic sculptures, as well as archaeological fabrics related to the site’s museum, serves to increase public awareness and cultural conservation efforts.
The specific environmental conditions at the San Agustín Park and the pressure of local communities are a continuous source of management and conservation challenges for the preservation of funerary structures and other archaeological remains. Thus, the implementation of the Management Plan for the World Heritage Site includes short, medium, and long term programs designed to increase their protection trough: Archaeological and conservation research, conservation, public outreach, local community issues, environmental management, and administrative infrastructure improvements. This program stresses the ICANH´s commitment towards the systematic control of bio-deterioration agents affecting archaeological structures, particularly at the Fuente de Lavapatas site. In addition, a major project for park facility improvement is under way, which will expand available space for research work, collection reserves, and museum spaces, as well as improve reception and visitor services areas. The plan has also included a zoning delimitation and definition of buffer areas, and contemplates opening spaces for community involvement in site protection.
To achieve these goals, ICANH frequently strives to raise more budget and resources to strengthen the interdisciplinary team of researchers and advisors, and ensure the continuity of each program’s movements and interventions, thus ensuring the integrity and sustainability of the San Agustín Archaeological Site. Park.
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