El Abra : Tracing The Footsteps of Colombia’s First People

Описание: El Abra is one of the most important early archaeological sites in South America.

Located on the Sabana de Bogotá, this landscape of towering sandstone formations, caves, and natural rock shelters was once the shoreline of a vast glacial lake during the late Pleistocene. Around 14,000–12,000 years ago, some of the earliest known inhabitants of what is now Colombia lived here — leaving behind stone tools, hearths, faunal remains, and traces of early symbolic expression.

This film explores the history of the site, the original archaeological investigations led by Gonzalo Correal Urrego and Thomas van der Hammen, and a present-day search for surviving rock art within the formations of El Abra.

Among jagged rock faces and hidden shelters, evidence still remains — painted onto stone and buried beneath the substrata — preserving fragments of Colombia’s earliest human story.

This exploration is conducted with respect for cultural heritage and with a commitment to non-intrusive documentation.


Primary source-

This is the original preliminary report from 1969 by Dr.Gonzalo Correal Urrego and Thomas van der Hammen, including stratigraphy and early radiocarbon dates-
👉 https://revistas.icanh.gov.co/index.p...


For further reading-

El Abra (archaeological site)
👉 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Abra
Gonzalo Correal Urrego (Colombian archaeologist)
👉 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalo...
Thomas van der Hammen (Dutch geologist & paleoecologist)
👉 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_...


Written, filmed, edited and narrated by Jay Parker


#colombia #archaeology #hiddenhistory #prehistoricart #elabra #zipaquirá #xplorcolombia #culturalheritage #iceage #rockart