Landscapes and connections

The Extent of Space

The life of the planet extends beyond the lives of human societies

Aburrá Valley · Proyecto AD, 200743

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01

Of mountains, plateaus, rivers and valleys

South America brings together the Andean mountain ranges in the west and vast lowlands farther inland: the Orinoco plains, the Amazon lowlands, and the plains of the Chaco and the Pampas. Major river systems, including the Orinoco, Amazon and Paraguay–Paraná, flow through this continental mosaic.44 In Colombia, the Andes divide into three ranges—the Western, Central and Eastern Cordilleras—separated by the Cauca and Magdalena valleys.45 The department of Antioquia occupies part of northwestern Colombia. Here, the Western and Central Cordilleras shape a region connected to the Atrato, Cauca and Magdalena river basins.46

In the northern part of the Central Cordillera lies the Aburrá Valley: a long, deep depression enclosed by hills and mountain slopes. Its floor widens in the central section and narrows at Ancón Sur and Ancón Norte.47 The Aburrá–Medellín River forms the valley’s main drainage axis. It rises at Alto de San Miguel, in Caldas, flows predominantly from south to north, and joins the Río Grande at Puente Gabino to form the Porce River.47, 48

The Aburrá Valley belongs to a wider mountain landscape that includes the Ovejas highlands and the plateaus of eastern Antioquia.47 To the west lies the Cauca River canyon; to the east, the San Nicolás plateau. Political and economic ties linking Aburrá, San Nicolás and the stretch of the Cauca near Santa Fe de Antioquia have helped transform these territories.49 Their geographical proximity provides a starting point for thinking about regional development that brings economic activity together with environmental care and the needs of local communities.

Colombia’s terrain and main rivers. The boxes locate Antioquia and the Aburrá Valley. Proyecto AD, 2026.
Map sources and design choices
Terrain: derived from the HydroSHEDS elevation model at a resolution of 15 arc-seconds (approximately 460 m at the equator), based mainly on SRTM.50 River network: HydroRIVERS river centre lines; the map shows reaches with an upstream catchment area of at least 1,000 km². Line thickness is symbolic and does not represent the actual width of the channels.51 Location boxes: bounding rectangles derived from DANE’s departmental boundary layer for Antioquia52 and the extent of AMVA’s institutional Aburrá Valley layer.53 They are neither territorial boundaries nor geomorphological delineations of the valley. Map design: overhead view, north at the top; multidirectional hillshade with a vertical exaggeration factor of 1.5× (+50%). This is a moderate graphic choice, not a universal standard. Colours indicate elevation, not vegetation; the sea is shown without bathymetric data. Equidistant cylindrical projection on WGS 84, with a standard parallel of 4° N. Image size: 3,200 × 4,198 pixels; vector-designed tropical compass rose. Reproducible GIS mapping: Proyecto AD, 2026.

Original map labels retained: Valle de Aburrá means Aburrá Valley; O on the compass rose means west (Spanish: oeste).

02

A diverse neighbourhood

The Aburrá Valley is not isolated. It belongs to a geographical neighbourhood of plateaus, valleys and canyons: Santa Elena and Rionegro–San Vicente to the east; the Donmatías–Santa Rosa de Osos and Ovejas–San Félix highlands to the north and northwest; and the valley and canyon of the Cauca River to the west and southwest, between the Central and Western Cordilleras47. To the north, the Aburrá–Medellín River joins the Río Grande to form the Porce48. The present-day places shown against this terrain provide reference points for investigating the relationships between Indigenous settlements, colonial towns and later urban centres.

For the Aburrá Valley, a study of the accounts of Cieza de León, Sardella and Robledo suggests possible locations for the Indigenous settlement of Guayabal and its surrounding areas of occupation within the present-day municipalities of Medellín and Itagüí54. Colonial records identify pueblos de indios—settlements organised for Indigenous communities under colonial rule—in the surrounding region, including Sopetrán, Buriticá, El Peñol and La Estrella. Their formation involved colonial resettlement programmes known as reducciones, migration and the reorganisation of communities from different places55. San Lorenzo de Aburrá, established during Herrera Campuzano’s official inspection of 1614–1616, brought together local people and people relocated from other areas. It must be distinguished from Aná, where the town of La Candelaria de Medellín was established in 1675. These were different settlements, although their histories eventually became part of the present-day city56, 57. The colonial category pueblo de indios does not, in itself, demonstrate continuity with a pre-Hispanic village at the same location55.

Such continuity must be examined case by case. The formation of colonial towns was also linked to economic activities and the organisation of parishes. Later, settlement expansion, mining and agriculture transformed places in the surrounding region, including Titiribí and Concordia during the nineteenth century57, 58. We propose reading this neighbourhood as overlapping layers of Indigenous occupation, colonial reorganisation and transformations during the republican period, marked by persistence, displacement and rupture. From this perspective, the map raises questions about old paths, exchanges and relationships between communities. The existence and chronology of these connections—including marriage alliances and the circulation of knowledge—must be established through specific archaeological and documentary evidence. Their routes cannot be inferred solely from the distribution of present-day settlements.

Open full-size map
Terrain, rivers and urban areas in the Aburrá Valley’s geographical neighbourhood. Labels identify present-day places, not pre-Hispanic settlements. Proyecto AD, 2026.
Map sources and design choices
Terrain: Copernicus GLO-30; river network: Government of Antioquia; urban areas and 52 localities: DANE 2025.59, 60, 61 Colours indicate elevation; the 1.5× factor applies only to hillshading. Labels remain sharp when enlarged. Produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved.
San Cristóbal and its surroundings: an illustrated reading

The second image is an AI-generated schematic created for Proyecto AD in 2026, using the place names and spatial relationships in a reproduction attributed to Hernández Carmona (2003). It shows the general arrangement of places, waterways and connections depicted in that source. This visual interpretation is neither to scale nor georeferenced; it is not a historical document or a reconstruction of exact routes on the ground.

The source is retained as a scholarly reference. Its page, figure and any earlier cartographic source still require verification. The dates 1771–1863 belong to the study’s title and cannot be used to date each connection. Source and production note.

What this schematic cannot establish. The Quitasol path is not explicitly identified in the reference reproduction. Its omission does not demonstrate that it was unused in the post-Hispanic period. The generated image supplies no additional evidence to resolve that hypothesis: independent documentary and archaeological evidence is needed.

Image key: Ríos y quebradas = rivers and streams; Conexiones representadas = connections shown; A = towards. Place names remain in Spanish. North points right.

03

Places and landscapes to call home

The habitable landscapes of the Aburrá Valley extend beyond its lowest and flattest ground. The river and its tributaries have shaped floodplains, terraces and alluvial fans, all extensively transformed by urbanisation. Places to live also extend along stream valleys, foothills, slopes, ridgelines and hills. Evidence of dwellings, plant management and funerary practices from different periods has been recorded in several parts of the valley. This record invites us to recognise diverse ways of inhabiting the landscape, rather than assuming that settlement was concentrated in a single type of setting throughout its history62, 3.

Our knowledge of this occupation remains uneven. Alongside academic research, preventive archaeology programmes investigate and protect archaeological contexts that may be affected by construction and development projects63. When fieldwork is concentrated within project areas, the findings provide only partial coverage of the territory. We therefore propose interpreting their distribution in light of where research has actually taken place: an absence of recorded evidence does not necessarily mean an absence of occupation. Reconstructing local connections requires bringing these findings together with regional surveys and investigations of less explored places.

Streams connect the highlands to the valley floor. As they descend steep slopes, they may form rapids, cascades and waterfalls. Beyond their scenic value, waterways are part of environments that societies have inhabited and transformed. Studies of dwelling sites and the use of saline springs show that these relationships involved domestic activities, production and exchange62, 32. Understanding them requires considering each place’s terrain, resources and evidence together.

Waterfalls, streams and inhabited landscapes of the Aburrá Valley. Proyecto AD, 2007.All six photographs are from the Proyecto AD archive43, including the panoramic view of Bello, Copacabana and Girardota64.

04

Discovering → understanding → inhabiting

When the first human groups reached the Aburrá Valley remains an open question. At La Morena, Envigado, radiocarbon dates of 10,060 ± 60 and 9,680 ± 60 BP were recorded. BP means ‘before present’, with ‘present’ conventionally set at 1950. These ages must be calibrated before they can be expressed as calendar dates3. The evidence documents early occupations, but does not establish the exact time when people first entered the valley.

Research on the peopling of northwestern South America examines different possibilities for human dispersal, while major gaps remain in our knowledge of coastal areas and other regions65. Drawing on the terrain, the map proposes hypothetical connections between the Atrato, Cauca and Magdalena river basins and passages into the Aburrá Valley. Its arrows express the project’s geographical interpretation: they do not show archaeologically demonstrated routes, nor do they imply that the first inhabitants travelled directly upstream along those three rivers. They also provide no basis for inferring the size or composition of the groups.

Archaeological objects offer another way to explore possible connections. At Niquía, Bello, a projectile point and a point fragment were reported from considerable depth, without a controlled stratigraphic context66. Their characteristics have prompted comparisons with objects from other regions, including the Middle Magdalena, although their chronology remains uncertain62. Such similarities provide a basis for investigating technological relationships. Identifying where the stone came from requires dedicated studies and comparisons with geological sources. The references consulted here provide no petrographic or geochemical determination of the source of the stone used for these objects.

Open full-size map
Antioquia and the Atrato, Cauca and Magdalena river corridors. Arrows suggest geographical connections towards Aburrá; they do not represent archaeologically demonstrated routes. Proyecto AD, 2026.
Map sources and design choices
Terrain: Copernicus GLO-90; rivers: HydroRIVERS; departmental boundary and Medellín reference point: DANE 2025.67, 51, 52, 61 The 1.5× factor applies only to hillshading; river line thickness is symbolic. Arrows are interpretive additions without an assigned chronology; the Aburrá symbol does not locate an archaeological site. Produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-90 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved.

05

Echoes of the Canyon from a distinctive past

Similarities between archaeological materials from the Aburrá Valley, neighbouring plateaus and the Cauca basin, together with evidence of production and exchange, provide a basis for investigating connections between their inhabitants62, 32. This perspective raises questions about the circulation of raw materials, objects, techniques and visual forms, without assuming a shared ethnic, political or ideological identity across the whole region. The map brings together two areas of study: the Middle Cauca, historically associated with ‘Quimbaya’, and the physical corridor of the Cauca River canyon. Its boxes are spatial reference frames, not cultural boundaries.

The label ‘Quimbaya Culture’ brought together materials from different periods and places. These must be distinguished from the peoples called Quimbaya in colonial documents. A 2024 introduction to the redesigned exhibition at the Museo del Oro Quimbaya distinguishes an Archaic period, a regional Classic period in the Middle Cauca—approximately 600 BCE to 700 CE—and a Late Middle Cauca period that also addresses colonial contact68. We use that periodisation here as a framework for presenting the subject. Its dates and categories should not be applied automatically to all contexts of the same periods in the Aburrá Valley.

Regional archaeological sequences record changes in pottery and funerary practices, as well as differences between places and periods62, 66. A pottery style alone cannot identify a people or reveal its political organisation. Accounts of the conquest add information about settlements and paths, but must be read with attention to who wrote them, the circumstances of the encounter and the journey being described54. Comparing those accounts with dated archaeological contexts allows us to examine continuities, transformations and differences without treating the entire Cauca corridor as a homogeneous society.

Open full-size map
The Middle Cauca and the Cauca River canyon. The boxes compare geographical and archaeological areas of study; they do not delimit cultures. Points identify present-day places. Proyecto AD, 2026.
Map sources and design choices
Terrain: Copernicus GLO-90; rivers: HydroRIVERS; departments and 20 localities, including Bolombolo: DANE 2025.67, 51, 52, 61 Archaeological context: Museo del Oro Quimbaya.68 Overlaid interpretive boxes, not archaeological polygons or official canyon boundaries. The 1.5× factor applies only to hillshading; colours indicate elevation. Produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-90 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved.

Vancouver referencing style

References

Bibliographic titles and institutional names are retained in their original language.

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Reading the maps. Maps for public communication, created with open GIS data. Names identify present-day places; arrows and boxes express the project’s interpretations. Sources, scales and limitations are given alongside each image.