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Zenú
The Zenú, Sinú or Cenú is a pre-Columbian culture and Indigenous people in Colombia, whose ancestral territory comprises the valleys of the Sinú and San Jorge rivers as well as the coast of the Caribbean around the Gulf of Morrosquillo. These lands lie within the departments of Córdoba and Sucre.
The Zenú civilization peaked from about 200 BCE to about 1600 CE, constructing major waterworks and producing gold ornaments. The gold that was often buried with their dead lured the Spanish conquistadors, who looted much of the gold. With the arrival of the Spaniards, the chiefdom was decimated over a 25-year period (1510–1535) by disease and warfare. The Zenú language disappeared around 200 years ago.[citation needed] However, the 2018 Colombian Census showed 307,091 Zenú people in Colombia.
In 1773 the King of Spain designated 83,000 hectares in San Andrés de Sotavento as a Zenú reserve. This reserve existed until it was dissolved by the National Assembly of Colombia in 1905. The Zenú have fought for the restoration of the reserve, and in 1990 San Andrés de Sotavento was restored as a Zenú reserve with a land area of 10,000 hectares (later 23,000). Since then, and especially in the first decades of the 21st century, more and more lands in Antioquia Department have been transferred to Zenú people.
Around 200 BCE, communities of farmers and goldsmiths lived in the valleys of the Sinú, San Jorge, Cauca and lower Nechí rivers, all culturally related with similar artistic expressions, concepts of life and death, and environmental practices. Their means of subsistence were hunting, farming, fishing, and trading in raw materials and finished products. Around 950 CE, about 160 inhabitants per square kilometer lived in the San Jorge basin. After 1100, the Zenú population decreased for unknown reasons and moved to higher pastures that did not flood, requiring no drainage works, where they lived until the Spanish conquest.
The inland delta formed by the San Jorge River, the Cauca River, the Magdalena River and the Nechí River, south-west of Santa Cruz de Mompox, frequently flooded during the rainy season in the mountains from April to November, causing great inconvenience to the residents of the plains. Therefore, from 200 BCE onwards these people built a system of channels that enabled them to control the flooding and make large areas practical for habitation and agriculture. The system was continually expanded. Covering 500,000 hectares between 200 BCE and 1000 CE, it was at its greatest extent in the San Jorge basin, but channels were also constructed in the lower reaches of the rivers Cauca and Sinú.
The Zenú dug channels, sometimes as long as four kilometers, connected to the natural waterways. Perpendicular to these channels, smaller irrigation ditches were dug. The soil left by the excavations was used to build long artificial terraces, two to four meters high, on which they built their houses. During times of high water, the channels led the water to areas where crops were grown. When the water withdrew, the nutrient-rich sludge was used to enrich the land. This system of water management was used over a period of 1300 years.
After the Spanish conquest, the drainage system probably did not function anymore, because the chroniclers made no mention of it. Although the system has now been overtaken by marshes, the channel patterns are still detectable in the landscape.
In the Zenú culture, women were the symbol of fertility, wisdom and respect. Female characters were frequently portrayed in clay and placed in the graves of the dead as a symbol of human and agricultural fertility. The presence of these statuettes in the grave symbolized conception and rebirth in the underworld, in the same way that seeds germinate and grow. During the funeral ceremony, which was attended by the whole community with music and dance, a mound was built over the grave. On top of the mound a tree was planted, and golden bells were hung in the branches. The golden breastplates that important women and chiefs wore during ceremonies symbolized the pregnancy of women and the virility of men. The roundness of the mound, like the roundness of a breastplate, was an allusion to the place where pregnancy and birth took place. Thus, women possessed great social and political significance. When the Zenú culture was discovered by the Spaniards in the 16th century, the religious center of Finzenú at the river Sinú was led by Toto, a female chief who governed several nearby villages.[citation needed]
Zenú
The Zenú, Sinú or Cenú is a pre-Columbian culture and Indigenous people in Colombia, whose ancestral territory comprises the valleys of the Sinú and San Jorge rivers as well as the coast of the Caribbean around the Gulf of Morrosquillo. These lands lie within the departments of Córdoba and Sucre.
The Zenú civilization peaked from about 200 BCE to about 1600 CE, constructing major waterworks and producing gold ornaments. The gold that was often buried with their dead lured the Spanish conquistadors, who looted much of the gold. With the arrival of the Spaniards, the chiefdom was decimated over a 25-year period (1510–1535) by disease and warfare. The Zenú language disappeared around 200 years ago.[citation needed] However, the 2018 Colombian Census showed 307,091 Zenú people in Colombia.
In 1773 the King of Spain designated 83,000 hectares in San Andrés de Sotavento as a Zenú reserve. This reserve existed until it was dissolved by the National Assembly of Colombia in 1905. The Zenú have fought for the restoration of the reserve, and in 1990 San Andrés de Sotavento was restored as a Zenú reserve with a land area of 10,000 hectares (later 23,000). Since then, and especially in the first decades of the 21st century, more and more lands in Antioquia Department have been transferred to Zenú people.
Around 200 BCE, communities of farmers and goldsmiths lived in the valleys of the Sinú, San Jorge, Cauca and lower Nechí rivers, all culturally related with similar artistic expressions, concepts of life and death, and environmental practices. Their means of subsistence were hunting, farming, fishing, and trading in raw materials and finished products. Around 950 CE, about 160 inhabitants per square kilometer lived in the San Jorge basin. After 1100, the Zenú population decreased for unknown reasons and moved to higher pastures that did not flood, requiring no drainage works, where they lived until the Spanish conquest.
The inland delta formed by the San Jorge River, the Cauca River, the Magdalena River and the Nechí River, south-west of Santa Cruz de Mompox, frequently flooded during the rainy season in the mountains from April to November, causing great inconvenience to the residents of the plains. Therefore, from 200 BCE onwards these people built a system of channels that enabled them to control the flooding and make large areas practical for habitation and agriculture. The system was continually expanded. Covering 500,000 hectares between 200 BCE and 1000 CE, it was at its greatest extent in the San Jorge basin, but channels were also constructed in the lower reaches of the rivers Cauca and Sinú.
The Zenú dug channels, sometimes as long as four kilometers, connected to the natural waterways. Perpendicular to these channels, smaller irrigation ditches were dug. The soil left by the excavations was used to build long artificial terraces, two to four meters high, on which they built their houses. During times of high water, the channels led the water to areas where crops were grown. When the water withdrew, the nutrient-rich sludge was used to enrich the land. This system of water management was used over a period of 1300 years.
After the Spanish conquest, the drainage system probably did not function anymore, because the chroniclers made no mention of it. Although the system has now been overtaken by marshes, the channel patterns are still detectable in the landscape.
In the Zenú culture, women were the symbol of fertility, wisdom and respect. Female characters were frequently portrayed in clay and placed in the graves of the dead as a symbol of human and agricultural fertility. The presence of these statuettes in the grave symbolized conception and rebirth in the underworld, in the same way that seeds germinate and grow. During the funeral ceremony, which was attended by the whole community with music and dance, a mound was built over the grave. On top of the mound a tree was planted, and golden bells were hung in the branches. The golden breastplates that important women and chiefs wore during ceremonies symbolized the pregnancy of women and the virility of men. The roundness of the mound, like the roundness of a breastplate, was an allusion to the place where pregnancy and birth took place. Thus, women possessed great social and political significance. When the Zenú culture was discovered by the Spaniards in the 16th century, the religious center of Finzenú at the river Sinú was led by Toto, a female chief who governed several nearby villages.[citation needed]
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