Pre Columbian remains found in Mompos

With the Plaza de la Concepcion under restoration in Mompos, it will hardly come as any surprise that during the excavations there have been some archeological finds of note. Given that the Mompos Depression hosted a major pre Columbian civilization navigating the waterways, irrigating land and flourishing here, the land upon which contemporary Mompos is built was an important indigenous settlement. Little of what was once here can be seen today aside from in traditional dances performed by communities and in the faces of the population.

In an exciting turn of events, as the diggers were underway pulling up the concrete from the plaza, more or less beneath the steps of the Iglesia de la Concepcion, five indigenous bodies were pulled almost intact from the ground. In addition to this find there are numerous fragments of pre columbian ceramics, colonial era pottery, some enamel and a small cannonball.

Since the excavations are set to continue as new drains are put in and the ground made ready for cobblestones there will likely be more findings, and indeed once other areas are unearthed these will doubtless yield more archeological booty.

That five bodies were found suggests that this point was a particularly significant area for the population here and knowing that Spanish colonial practice was to build religious edifices on top of original sacred spots, we could surmise that here, in the centre of Mompos, there was a major populace.