Muisca Confederations were loose confederations of different Muisca chiefdoms in the Eastern Andean highlands of what is today Colombia before the Spanish conquest of northern South America. These unions, centred around main chiefdoms recognised by smaller ones, were not a single, even loose, muisca confederation of chiefdoms, but multiple, independent regional entities. The area, presently called Altiplano Cundiboyacense, comprised the current departments of Boyacá, Cundinamarca and minor parts of Santander.
Usually, Muisca chiefdoms were composed of various basic matrilineal units (uta, minor, or sibyn, major) called capitanías by the Spaniards. However, power was based on individual alliances of Muisca rulers with households or basic units. Often, sibyn were villages and uta groups of houses. Four confederations of chiefdoms formed in Muisca territory: Bogotá, Tunja, Duitama and Sogamoso. Additionally, the Chibcha-speaking Guane and Lache were also ruled by the confederation of Guanentá and the confederation of El Cocuy respectively. Different models exist to explain the nature of power among Muisca elites.
Muisca Confederations
The Muiscas lived in the Andes Orientales in a territory of approximately 22.000 km2. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, four confederations existed in their territory (Bogotá, Tunja, Duitama, Sogamoso). According to colonial documents, the confederations of Sogamoso and Duitama were independent of Tunja and had great importance. Political power was not based on economic or political subordination but recognition of certain authorities, sometimes multiple at a time. The size of muisca population remains debated. The most powerful chiefdom at the time of the Spanish conquest was Bogotá. Additionally, there were independent chiefdoms in the north-west, not affilitiated to any confederation.
Muisca settlements were organised around the cacique's enclosure or cercado. Roads were present to connect the settlements with each other and with the surrounding indigenous groups, of which the Guane and Lache to the north, the Panche and Muzo to the west and Guayupe, Achagua and Tegua to the east were the most important.
History
Prehistory
Early Amerindian settlers led a hunter-gatherer life among still extant megafauna living in cool habitats around Pleistocene lakes, of which the humedales in Bogotá, Lake Suesca, Lake Fúquene and Lake Herrera are notable examples. Multiple evidences of late Pleistocene to middle Holocene population of the Bogotá savanna, the high plateau in the Colombian Andes, have been found to date. As is common with caves and rock shelters, 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 (12,500 BP), located north of Zipaquirá and Tibitó, located within the boundaries of Tocancipá (11,740 BP). The oldest human remains and the oldest complete skeleton were discovered at Tequendama and has been named "Hombre del Tequendama" or Homo Tequendama. Other artefacts have been found in Gachalá (9100 BP), Sueva (Junín) and Zipacón. Just west of the Altiplano, the oldest archaeological remains were found; in Pubenza, part of Tocaima and have been dated at 16,000 years Before Present.
Pre-Columbian era
The Herrera Period is a historical period named after the La Herrera lake, south of Bogotá, it took place approximately between 800 BCE to 800 AD. However, current academic consensus considers the period to have ranged from 400 B.C. to 1000 A.D., with regional variations. The muisca arrival to the Altiplano Cundibyacense most likely pre-dated the beginning of the Herrera period. However, the exact date of their arrival is unknown, and the least oldest date would be the middle of the first millennium B.C.
Generally, the Herrera period is characterized by agriculture, ceramic traditions and the use of salt sources. The political organisation and level of social complexity during the Herrera period is uncertain.
The period named "Muisca" is separated by scholars into "early muisca" (approximately 1000–1200 A.D.) and "late muisca" (apr. 1200–1600). This period is associated with the rise of muisca chiefdoms. Through the construction of monolithic structures, elites acquired an ideological more than a direct economic control. The reasons for the expansion of chiefdoms are uncertain. According to Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, the north-western, independent chiefdoms are representative of the state of Muisca society prior to the creation of confederations. Possibly, matrimonial alliances, conducted independently of the "territory" assigned to each chiefdom, played an important role. Two traditions of chroniclers reported different versions of Bogotá expansion: According to Juan Rodríguez Freyle, Bogotá's expansion began just one year before the Spanish conquest, after having revolted against the previously dominant chiefdom of Guatavita. On the other hand, Lucas Fernández de Piedrahíta related Bogotá's expansion in the course of 67 years, as the result of various military campaigns led by different chiefs. According to Martha Herrera Angel, the colonial-era writings, while filled with exaggerations and misunderstandings, contain a core of historical truth.
The concept of gue ("house") was essential for muisca chiefs to secure their legitimacy, which was based on rules of succession and a certain degree of popular consent. Their role was to redistribute an accumulated surplus of goods, not to accumulate them. The existence of religious specialists can be explained by the need to maintain the equilibrium of the world.
The people used a decimal counting system, based on the digits of the hand. Their system went from 1 to 10 and for higher numerations they used the prefix quihicha or qhicha, which means "foot" in their Chibcha language Muysccubun. Eleven became thus "foot one", twelve "foot two", etc. As in the other pre-Columbian civilizations, the number 20 was special. It was the total number of all body extremities; fingers and toes. The Muisca used two forms to express twenty: "foot ten"; quihícha ubchihica or their exclusive word gueta, derived from gue, which means "house". Numbers between 20 and 30 were counted gueta asaqui ata ("twenty plus one"; 21), gueta asaqui ubchihica ("twenty plus ten"; 30). Larger numbers were counted as multiples of twenty; gue-bosa ("20 times 2"; 40), gue-hisca ("20 times 5"; 100). The Muisca script consisted of hieroglyphs, only used for numerals. Gold was not the main object of prestige, but had religious significance, as chiefs preferred exotic clothing and sumptuous palisades to show their power. There was no currency among the Muiscas.
Territorial organization
Bacatá
Hunza
Iraca
Tundama
- Capital – Tundama
- Area – 2,920 square kilometres (1,130 sq mi)
- Average elevation – 2,470 metres (8,100 ft)
- Last ruler – Tundama
- Date of conquest – Late December 1539 (Duitama) – Baltasar Maldonado
- Important settlements – Tundama, Onzaga, Soatá, Chitagoto (now Paz de Río)
Independent caciques
- Capital – none
- Area – 3,080 square kilometres (1,190 sq mi)
- Average elevation – 2,140 metres (7,020 ft)
- Important caciques – Guatavita, Ubaté, Chiquinquirá, Ubaque, Tenza, Vélez
Neighbouring indigenous groups
- Panche
- Muzo or The Emerald people
- Cariban-speaking
- trading access to western neighbours
- Furatena
- pathways to gold
- conquest by Luis Lanchero (1539–1559)
- Guane
- Chibcha-speaking
- producers of cotton for mantle making
- producers of fruits
- access to La Tora (Barrancabermeja); trading sea shells at Magdalena River
- conquest by Martín Galeano (1539–1551)
Sacred sites
The sacred sites of the Muisca Confederation were based in the Muisca religion and mythology. The Muisca were a highly religious people with their own beliefs on the origin of the Earth and life and human sacrifices were no exception to please the gods for good harvests and prosperity.
Lake Guatavita, Guatavita, was the location where the new zipa would be inaugurated. It became known with the Spanish conquerors as the site of El Dorado where the new zipa was covered in gold dust and installed as the new ruler of the southern Muisca.
In the legends of the Muisca, humankind originated in Lake Iguaque, Monquirá, when the goddess Bachué came out from the lake with a boy in her arms. When the boy grew, they populated the Earth. They are considered the ancestors of the human race. Finally, they disappeared unto the lake in the shape of snakes.
According to Muisca myths, the Tequendama Falls, outside Soacha, was the site where the first zipa Meicuchuca lost his lover who turned in a snake and disappeared in the waters of the Bogotá River.
El Infiernito, close to the present town of Villa de Leyva was a sacred site where the Muisca erected structures based on astronomical parameters.
Other sacred sites
Spanish conquests
Conquest and early colonial period
The conquest of the Muisca was the heaviest of all four Spanish expeditions to the great American civilisations. More than 80 percent of the soldiers and horses that started the journey of a year to the northern Muisca Confederation did not survive it. Various settlements were founded by the Spanish between 1537 and 1539.
A delegation of more than 900 men left the tropical city of Santa Marta and went on a harsh expedition through the heartlands of Colombia in search of El Dorado and the civilisation that produced all this precious gold. The leader of the first and main expedition under Spanish flag was Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, with his brother Hernán second in command. Several other soldiers were participating in the journey, who would later become encomenderos and taking part in the conquest of other parts of Colombia. Other contemporaneous expeditions into the unknown interior of the Andes, all searching for the mythical land of gold, were starting from later Venezuela, led by Bavarian and other German conquistadors and from the south, starting in the previously founded Kingdom of Quito in later Ecuador.
The first phase of the conquest was ended by the victory of the few conquistadors left over Tisquesusa, the last zipa of Bacatá, who fell and died after the battle at Funza, on the Bogotá savanna, 20 April 1537. The arrival of the Spanish conquerors was revealed to Tisquesusa by the mohan Popón, from the village of Ubaque. He told the Muisca ruler that foreigners were coming and Tisquesusa would die "bathing in his own blood". When Tisquesusa was informed of the advancing invasion of the Spanish soldiers, he sent a spy to Suesca to find out more about their army strength, weapons and with how many warriors they could be beaten. The zipa left the capital Bacatá and took shelter in Nemocón which directed the Spanish troops to there, during this march attacked by more than 600 Muisca warriors.
When Tisquesusa retreated in his fort in Cajicá he allegedly told his men he would not be able to combat against the strong Spanish army in possession of weapons that produced "thunder and lightning". He chose to return to Bacatá and ordered the capital to be evacuated, resulting in an abandoned site when the Spanish arrived. In search for the Muisca ruler the conquistadores went north to find Tisquesusa in the surroundings of Facatativá where they attacked him at night.
Tisquesusa was thrusted by the sword of one of De Quesada's soldiers but without knowing he was the zipa he let him go, after taking the expensive mantle of the ruler. Tisquesusa fled hurt into the mountains and died of his wounds there. His body was only discovered a year later because of the black vultures circling over it.