Tequendama (archaeological site)
 Location within Colombia
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| Location | Soacha, Cundinamarca |
|---|---|
| Region |
Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia
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| Coordinates | 4°32′06.42″N 74°16′32.47″W / 4.5351167°N 74.2756861°WCoordinates: 4°32′06.42″N 74°16′32.47″W / 4.5351167°N 74.2756861°W |
| Altitude | 2,570 m (8,432 ft) |
| Type | Cave, rock shelter |
| Part of | Pre-Muisca sites |
| History | |
| Abandoned | Colonial period (>1537) |
| Periods | Prehistory-Herrera-Muisca |
| Cultures | Herrera-Muisca |
| Site notes | |
| Archaeologists | Hammen, Correal |
| Public access | Yes |
Tequendama is a preceramic and ceramic archaeological site located southeast of Soacha, Cundinamarca, Colombia, a couple of kilometers east of Tequendama Falls. It consists of multiple evidences of late to middle Holocene population of the Bogotá savanna, the high plateau in the Colombian Andes. Tequendama was inhabited from around 11,000 years BP, and continuing into the prehistorical, Herrera and Muisca periods, making it the oldest site of Colombia, together with El Abra, located north of Zipaquirá. Younger evidences also from the Herrera Period have been found close to the site of Tequendama in Soacha, at the construction site of a new electrical plant. They are dated at around 900 BCE to 900 AD.
The most important researchers who since 1969 contributed on the knowledge about Tequendama were Dutch geologist and palynologist Thomas van der Hammen and archaeologist and anthropologist Gonzalo Correal Urrego.
The name Tequendama means in the Muysccubun: "he who precipitates downward".
During the time before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, the central highlands of the Colombian Andes (Altiplano Cundiboyacense) were populated first by prehistorical indigenous groups, then by people from the Herrera Period, and finally by the Muisca.
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