South American Intermediate Area in the Ancient World

Related civilizations: Monagrillo, Aristide, Tonosí, Tumaco/La Tolita, San Agustín/Tierradentro, Calima, Atlantic Coast cultures, Puerto Hormiga, Malambo, Momil.

Date: 8000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.

Locale: Colombia and Panama

South American Intermediate Area in the Ancient World

Paleo-Indians were present in the Intermediate Area from 8000 b.c.e. For the first five thousand years, people formed small, nomadic groups of hunters and foragers, using stone tools. The history of the Intermediate Area is defined along geographical contexts, the mountains versus the coastal lowlands. After 3000 b.c.e., lowland cultures continued to rely on fishing and hunting for food in contrast to the highland cultures, which began to rely more on agriculture. Population grew in the highland, agricultural communities, leading to the development of status differences. The political order that was required to organize the larger mountainous communities can be seen in the precise, repetitive, and orderly organization of visual images in the art.

Panama

The earliest definable ceramics culture in Panama is the Monagrillo culture (3000-1100 b.c.e.). In the latter half of this period, maize agriculture was adopted, leading to the use of slash-and-burn techniques and deforestation. The population grew significantly, and labor became more specialized. Ceramics were rudimentary in construction and lacked both necks and surface decoration. Around 900 b.c.e., black stylized designs of birds, serpents, and other animals were first painted on ceramics. The strong stylized figures that appear in this period came to define Panamanian ceramics throughout the pre-Columbian period.

The Aristide style (100 b.c.e.-300 c.e.) is associated with riverine villages in the central region of Panama that were characterized by a mixed economic pattern including hunting, fishing, and maize horticulture. Aristide ware can be identified by its use of black painting on a red background and geometric forms such as scrolls, cross-hatching, and chevrons. The painted area of the pot was enclosed within circumferential bands, a practice that was continued by later potters. From this period, shifts in ceramic style become important markers of cultural changes.

The Tonosí style (100 b.c.e.-500 c.e.) emerged somewhat later in essentially the same area under peoples with a similar lifestyle. However, the stylistic differences between the Aristide and Tonosí ceramics suggest that they were the products of distinct cultural groups. Tonosí ceramics were characterized by polychrome painting on buff-colored clay as well as black-on-red painting. The highly stylized figures included anthropomorphic, serpentine, and avian shapes painted with bold curving lines. By the late Tonosí period (500-600 c.e.), the design style evolved into the Conte style. The Conte painting style became denser, with images frequently crowded into the design space, anticipating a pattern characteristic of subsequent Panamanian styles.

Colombia

The evolution from the foraging lifestyle in Colombia to horticulture and chiefdomships led to a plethora of cultures. After the emergence of ceramics shortly before 3000 b.c.e., subsequent cultures included Tumaco/La Tolita, San Agustín/Tierradentro, Calima, and the Atlantic Coast groups.

In the Sinú region along the Atlantic coast, a number of cultures existed, including Puerto Hormiga (3200-2000 b.c.e.), Malambo (800-600 b.c.e.), and Momil (600 b.c.e.-600 c.e.). These were lowland, coastal communities based on manioc horticulture until the later introduction of maize. Hunting and fishing were important supplemental activities. The ceramic art from this area is quite different from that found in southern Colombia in that it emphasizes female figures shown sitting or standing in power positions.

The Tumaco/La Tolita cultural complex (300 b.c.e.-350 c.e.) seems to have been important as a transmission zone for the metallurgical skills that were initially developed in Peru and later disseminated northward into Colombia along with the shaman/jaguar cult and the concept of the ritual urban center. The importance of the human figure in Tumaco ceramics and the gracefulness with which it was managed probably developed from the early Ecuadorian coastal cultures.

The Tumaco people lived in a dispersed settlement pattern with individual houses separated from one another. Their diet included shellfish, fish, birds, small mammals, corn, and beans, and they used cotton. During the Classic period (300 b.c.e.-90 c.e.), Tumaco emerged as a major ceremonial center with distinct social hierarchies. Earthen mounds were constructed, an urban concentration developed, and the production of ceramics increased. In the Postclassic period (90-350 c.e.), the area continued its rich figure-making tradition in ceramics.

Calima culture (1500 b.c.e.-700 c.e.) continued the ceramic figure tradition of Tumaco, but the figures were incorporated into small vessel shapes. The figures were usually full in volume and have carefully modeled facial features. Cross-hatching on the surface of the figure is frequently used for decoration.

San Agustín and Tierradentro (600 b.c.e.-700 c.e.) in the southern highlands were inhabited as early as 3300 b.c.e., but they did not become major ceremonial centers until 300 c.e. Both are necropolises characterized by elaborate funerary constructions. In San Agustín, the burials are in megalithic vaults with coffins carved of single pieces of stone, but in Tierradentro, the tombs are underground burial chambers with elaborately painted walls. The elaborate burials indicate the higher status people associated with chiefdomships. San Agustín is especially known for the stone sculptures associated with its sites. Sculptured guardians armed with clubs protect the entrances to the tombs, and other stone figures represent mythical beings in animal or human shapes.

Bibliography

Helms, Mary W. The Curassow’s Crest: Myths and Symbols in the Ceramics of Ancient Panama. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000.

Labbé, Armand J. Colombia Before Columbus: The People, Culture, and Ceramic Art of Prehispanic Colombia. New York: Rizzoli, 1986.

Labbé, Armand J. Guardians of the Life Stream: Shamans, Art, and Power in Prehispanic Central Panamá. Santa Ana, Calif.: Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 1995.