David Dellenback & Martha Gil: The Lost People of San Agustin

The mysterious ‘Sculptor People’Surprisingly little is known about the people who created these burial mounds, who are alternatively called the Cultura del Alto Magdalena (Upper Magdalena Culture) or the Pueblo Escultor (Sculptor People). “The big mystery is why these sculptors disappeared [in the ninth century],” explains archaeologist Hernán Ordoñez, who grew up in San Agustín. “Did something happen to the climate? Were there volcanic eruptions? Was it contact—or conflict—with other pre-Hispanic cultures? So far, it’s not clear.”What we do know is that the megalithic sculptures were artistic manifestations “made with the intention of almost ideological dominance,” says Ordoñez. They were meant to transcend life—perhaps acting as protectors of the living—and include iconographic features making them resemble reptiles, felines, monkeys, and other creatures native to the area. Most of the figures were carved in sitting positions and included embedded messages offering clues about ancient shamanic practices.

The first scientific excavations took place here in the 1910s, though 17th-century tomb raiders had already plundered many sites for golden funerary artifacts. The archaeological parks date to 1931; they were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. Though large-scale scientific excavations mostly took place between the 1960s and 1990s, newer studies, conducted by the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History between 2016 to 2022 using remote sensor technologies, are expected to shed new light on the culture over the coming years.

Roughly 600 statues lie near the town of San Agustín on the eastern slopes of the Colombian Massif. The Magdalena River, Colombia’s chief waterway, has its headwaters here. The river flows east through a sharp-hewn canyon, dividing the three associated archaeological parks where the statues seem to watch over elaborate tombs with portal-like dolmens and carved stone sarcophagi.The San Agustín Archaeological Park, on the western edge of its namesake town, is the largest of the trio, home to a small museum and a winding forest trail that doubles as an open-air exhibit of statues found elsewhere. The park also contains exposed burial mounds poking above manicured lawns and a sprawling monument carved into the stone bed of a trickling stream.

Davíd Dellenback was born in Oregon; he has lived in San Agustín since the 1970’s, an investigator and intepreter of the ancient Pueblo Escultor of the Macizo Colombiano. He has put together a comprehensive registry of their lithic statuary, with drawings of the stonework accompanied by descriptions, measurements, bibliography, notes on the history and movements of the monoliths, etc. He has also traveled widely in America in search of sites of ancient stone sculpture and stone-carving. As well, he has been involved in the movement to repatriate stone-sculptures stolen from the territory by huaqueros and academics. He is a member of the Veeduría de la Repatriación and of the San Agustín Academy of History.

Martha Gil was born in Bogotá, Colombia; she has lived in San Agustín for more than two decades. She is an “ex-lawyer”, a writer, educator and archaeological tourism guide. She is the translator and distributor of the works published by the couple, and is a partner in the investigations of the ancient Pueblo Escultor. In her Macizo Colombiano territory, she is a leader in efforts to repatriate cultural patrimony, and of the related community education and appropriation.