Proyecto AD: knowledge, culture and the pre-Hispanic past of the Aburrá Valley
Culture is the collective construction of meaning in life. Jesús Martín-Barbero
Exploring pre-Hispanic time takes us on a journey between the peopling of the Americas and the historical arrival of the first Europeans, who irreversibly changed the course of Indigenous peoples and societies. The footprints at White Sands, in the United States, dated to around 23,000–21,000 years ago, support human presence in the Americas during the Last Glacial Maximum1, 2 (the last ‘Ice Age’). For the Aburrá Valley, the oldest known date comes from La Morena, Envigado: 10,060 ± 60 BP, with a published calibrated range of 11,980–11,320 cal BP.3 The other boundary is the arrival in 1541 of the Spanish expedition led by Jerónimo Luis Tejelo, sent by Jorge Robledo.4
Colonial and republican writings allow us to study what happened after the Spanish arrival, although their coverage is uneven and their voices reflect particular standpoints. This invites us to look further back and ask what was happening in our valley before an alphabet or digital technologies existed here. Looking back without idealising the past5 may offer lessons on how to inhabit, use, care for, value and plan for this same land. In a cultural sense, like physicists and mathematicians, we too stand ‘on the shoulders of giants’.
In this way, it can be said that the thriving city of Medellín exists and sustains itself, to a large extent, through its interaction with the other municipalities that make up the urban footprint of the Aburrá Valley Metropolitan Area—a largely conurbated territory.
The 9 Municipalities Interacting with Medellín in the Aburrá Valley
Colour key:
- Conurbated: shares continuous, densely inhabited urban borders with the metropolitan core.
- Non-conurbated (discontinuous): does not share densely inhabited urban borders; separated by rural transitions, industrial corridors, or geographic narrows (ancones) between urban centres.
| Status | Municipality | Valley location | Spatial and border dynamics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conurbated | Bello | Immediate north | Direct urban and demographic continuity with northern Medellín. |
| Conurbated | Envigado | Immediate southeast | Uninterrupted urban continuity with Medellín (El Poblado), Itagüí, and Sabaneta. |
| Conurbated | Itagüí | Immediate southwest | Densely integrated with southern Medellín, Envigado, Sabaneta, and La Estrella. |
| Conurbated | Sabaneta | South | Seamlessly connected between Envigado, Itagüí, and La Estrella. |
| Conurbated | La Estrella | South | Closes the densely inhabited southern urban continuum before the valley narrows. |
| Discontinuous urban border | Copacabana | North | Separated from Bello’s continuous footprint by the Ancón Norte geographic narrow and industrial corridors. |
| Discontinuous urban border | Girardota | North | Separated from Copacabana and Barbosa by Aburrá River floodplains, rural areas, and country lots. |
| Discontinuous urban border | Barbosa | Far north | Urban centre separated by broad rural and agro-industrial stretches toward the northeast. |
| Discontinuous urban border | Caldas | Far south | Separated from the southern urban continuum by the Ancón Sur narrow and peri-urban hillside belts. |
An indicative spatial interpretation proposed for the project, not an official administrative classification. Physical urban continuity and functional metropolitan integration are distinct dimensions. Transitions may vary with the scale and date of observation.
This project explores how much today’s inhabitants of the Aburrá Valley share with its pre-Hispanic people. We inherit a little-known heritage: it is as though a great inheritance had been passed down to us without anyone explaining who helped create it. We believe that building identities through knowledge, diversity, history and a regional outlook open to the world helps us engage critically with the challenges of globalisation.
Thank you for taking part in this project by visiting our website.
Hybrid intelligence in the service of knowledge
A foundational precursor of hybrid intelligence is the ‘man–computer symbiosis’ proposed by J. C. R. Licklider in 1960: cooperation in which people formulate questions, set objectives and evaluate outcomes, while machines extend their processing capabilities.6 In 2019, Dellermann and colleagues proposed a contemporary definition centred on combining human and artificial intelligence to achieve complex goals and improve through joint learning.7 In 2020, Akata and colleagues developed this perspective into an agenda for collaboration that can adapt, act responsibly and provide understandable explanations.8 Today, the spread of generative AI gives this aspiration practical expression in new ways of researching, creating and communicating. Its effectiveness depends on how tasks are organised and results reviewed: collaboration alone does not guarantee better performance.9
In the service of knowledge, hybrid intelligence is a working method that can enhance human intelligence. It brings experience, cultural sensitivity, creativity and critical judgement together with AI’s capacity to process information, recognise patterns and propose alternatives.7 In Proyecto AD, this approach supports the exploration of sources, comparison of interpretations and development of texts, images and public-facing tools under human direction and review. Each revision offers an opportunity to correct errors, refine questions and improve our working methods. It is a powerful combination of human capabilities and AI to pursue complex goals, improve results and learn through the process, with documentary verification and intellectual responsibility built into the method. Technology thus extends our ability to understand and share the cultural heritage of the Aburrá Valley.
An index for exploring the valley
Explore the project
Choose a topic or go straight to a particular resource: from territory and food to archaeological evidence and its sources.
Search texts, timeline stations and references for places, researchers, plants, animals and artefacts. Accents are optional, and you can combine words, such as ‘Ferrería pottery’.
49 resources across 6 themes.
Time and space: basic aspects
Dating results, world comparison, social change, glossary and historical documentsThe Extent of Space
Territory and connectionsTimeline
Dates and processes- 7 Ma–12.6 kaBefore humans first looked upon the Valley
- 10,060–910 BPSequences and patterns: comparing three archaeological sites, starting with La Morena
- 7,720 ± 50 BPLa Blanquita and the puzzle of the projectile point
- 7,150 ± 230 BPVolcanoes, the Valley and survival
- 4,810 ± 70 BPCasa Blanca: the continuing process of plant domestication
View 15 more stations
- 3,180 ± 40 BPChance and the need to know
- ≈3,000 BPA lake, a lookout, a path, a transformed landscape…
- 2,910 ± 60 BPA new technical and aesthetic pattern
- ≈2,900 BPAn abundance of stone-built features in the Santa Elena highlands, Medellín
- 2,550 ± 40 BPThe La Cancana puzzle
- 2,390 ± 110 BPAnother piece in the complex puzzle of the past
- 2,080 ± 40 BPPlants, pottery and modified landscapes at Pan de Azúcar
- 1,940–1,830 BPPatterns, combinations, styles and societies
- 1,800 ± 140 BPThe modern city under ancestral guardianship
- ≈1,790 BPContested monuments
- 1,760 ± 60 BPThe pre-Hispanic village of El Ranchito
- 1,640 ± 50 BPAn example of prestige: the Lady of Envigado
- 1,640 ± 60 BPPre-Hispanic industries: salt springs in the Santa Elena highlands, Medellín
- 530 ± 80 BPThe hill’s enduring sacred significance
- 1541 CEA decisive rupture: conquest and the dismantling of Indigenous collective orders
How stones ‘speak’
Technology and materialsConditions for living
Food and knowledge- Plant domestication
- Gallery: maize, beans, cassava and other plants
- Evidence for food in the valley
- Animal resources and protein
- The valley’s ‘mute dogs’
View 2 more resources
Symbolism
Forms and meaningsNo matches were found in the indexed content. Try a shorter name, another spelling, or clear the search to see the index. A lack of search results does not demonstrate archaeological absence.
Memory, review and public communication
What is Proyecto AD?
In 2007, an idea took shape within a degree project in anthropology at the Universidad de Antioquia. Created and developed by Julián Pérez, with technical contributions from designer and programmer Jorge Fidel Castro, it was linked to the Valle de Aburrá Tourism Development Plan through contract 030 of 2007.10, 11 Responding to the opportunities and responsibilities posed by artificial intelligence, the work originally titled Aburrá Desconocido —the source of the initials ‘AD’— has become Proyecto AD. Its visual design, arguments and discussions are being updated, and claims made in 2007 are being assessed, supported or challenged, while its analytical spirit and academic structure are preserved.
Proyecto AD is a science communication initiative developed through hybrid intelligence: collaboration combining human and artificial capabilities to achieve complex goals, improve results and learn through the process.7 Here, artificial intelligence assists research, comparison, design and communication; intellectual responsibility for selecting, interpreting and ultimately publishing the content remains human.
The rich archaeological heritage of the Aburrá Valley opens a window onto the past for diverse audiences, with clarity and rigour. The project respects readers’ interests and capacity for understanding, avoiding a ‘for dummies’ approach while making degrees of certainty, disagreements and the limits of the record visible. It is conceived as a resource for research, the development of archaeological knowledge and methodological experimentation in science communication using the tools of our time.
A community without borders
Where our visitors
come from
The Aburrá Valley in dialogue with the world.
Every visit opens a new conversation about our past and our shared heritage.
Recorded visits—Last 30 days
Countries represented—Approximate location by country
A project born
in the Aburrá Valley.
An outlook open to the world.
A map of our encounters
Visits by countryThe map will load when you reach this section.
No visits 1–9 10–49 50–199 200+
Explore the map or choose a country from the list.
Cartography: Natural Earth · Equal Earth projection. Geolocation: DB-IP Lite (CC BY 4.0). Small countries also appear in the list.
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How to read these figures
A visit is a browsing session; the same person may return and generate several visits. These figures do not represent unique individuals or people currently online.
Country-level location is approximate. A VPN or the connection network can affect it. Visits without a known location are included in the total and shown separately.
Measurement uses Matomo, hosted by Proyecto AD. Data are updated hourly from the start of measurement; no earlier historical series is available. Browser blocking may prevent some visits from being counted, and exclusion of all bots cannot be guaranteed.
A map of reach that respects privacy: country-level totals without identities or precise locations.
Measurement uses no analytics cookies. We count openings from the index and searches with or without results, without storing what you type. We respect your browser’s ‘Do Not Track’ preference.
Home page references
- Willerslev E, Meltzer DJ. Peopling of the Americas as inferred from ancient genomics. Nature. 2021;594(7863):356-364. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03499-y. View source
- Pigati JS, Springer KB, Honke JS, et al. Independent age estimates resolve the controversy of ancient human footprints at White Sands. Science. 2023;382(6666):73-75. doi:10.1126/science.adh5007. View source
- Santos Vecino G. Investigaciones arqueológicas en El Escobero, municipio de Envigado (Antioquia) [Internet]. Envigado: Archivo Histórico, Secretaría de Educación para la Cultura, Municipio de Envigado; 2011 [cited 2026 Sep 20]. Available from: https://patrimonioculturalenvigado.edu.co/Documentos/4.InformeFinalMorena.pdf View source
- Sardella JB. Relación de lo que sucedió al capitán Jorge Robledo en el descubrimiento de las provincias de Antioquia y de la ciudad que fundó [1541]. Colección de documentos inéditos sobre la geografía y la historia de Colombia. Digital reproduction: Universidad de Caldas; 2022. p. 389-433 [Internet; cited 2026 Aug 23]. Available from: https://repositorio.ucaldas.edu.co/handle/ucaldas/18036 View source
- Langebaek KH, Piazzini CE, Dever A, Espinosa I. Arqueología y guerra en el Valle de Aburrá: estudio de cambios sociales en una región del noroccidente de Colombia. Bogotá: IFEA-Ediciones Uniandes; 2002 [Internet; cited 2026 Aug 23]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1992/55970 View source
- Licklider JCR. Man-computer symbiosis. IRE Trans Hum Factors Electron. 1960;HFE-1:4-11. View source
- Dellermann D, Ebel P, Söllner M, Leimeister JM. Hybrid Intelligence. Bus Inf Syst Eng. 2019;61(5):637-643. doi:10.1007/s12599-019-00595-2. View source
- Akata Z, Balliet D, de Rijke M, Dignum F, Dignum V, Eiben G, et al. A research agenda for hybrid intelligence: augmenting human intellect with collaborative, adaptive, responsible, and explainable artificial intelligence. Computer. 2020;53(8):18-28. doi:10.1109/MC.2020.2996587. View source Additional link
- Vaccaro M, Almaatouq A, Malone T. When combinations of humans and AI are useful: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nat Hum Behav. 2024;8(12):2293-2303. doi:10.1038/s41562-024-02024-1. View source
- Pérez Ríos JJ. Aburrá desconocido: una mirada sobre los pobladores prehispánicos del Valle de Aburrá: multimedia [degree dissertation on the Internet]. Medellín: Universidad de Antioquia; 2007 [cited 2026 Aug 23]. Available from: https://co.antropotesis.alterum.info/acervo/aburra-desconocido-una-mirada-sobre-los-pobladores-prehispanicos-del-valle-de-aburra-multimedia-recurso-electronico/ View source
- Proyecto AD. Original credits: Contract 030 of 2007, Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá; degree dissertation by Julián de Jesús Pérez Ríos; design by Jorge Fidel Castro. Medellín; 2007.