The Tunjuelo or Tunjuelito River is a river on the Bogotá savanna and a left tributary of the Bogotá River . The river, with a length of 73 kilometres (45 mi) originates in the Sumapaz Páramo and flows northward through the Usme Synclinal to enter the Colombian capital Bogotá . There, the river is mostly canalised flowing westward into the Bogotá River. It is one of the three main rivers of the city, together with the Fucha and Juan Amarillo Rivers .
12-674: The names Tunjuelo and Tunjuelito ("little Tunjuelo") are derived from the Cerro de los Tunjos, also Los Tunjos Lake , named after the tunjos , the religious votive figurines of the indigenous language of the Muisca , who inhabited the Bogotá savanna before the Spanish conquest . The Tunjuelo River has a total length of 73 kilometres (45 mi) and originates in the Sumapaz Páramo , in
24-506: A farmer found three tunjos in Carmen de Carupa , Cundinamarca . Exactly the same figures have been found up to the Valle del Cauca in the south of Colombia. The Pijao also made tunjos . The Muisca used to make matrixes or moulds of rock types such as shales and obsidian and poured their molten gold or tumbaga into the matrix. When the metals were cooled and solidified, they removed
36-602: The Muisca as part of their art . Tunjos were made of gold or tumbaga ; a gold - silver - copper alloy . The Muisca used their tunjos in various instances in their religion and the small votive offering figures have been found in various places on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense , Colombia . Tunjos were used as offer pieces, to communicate with the gods and when the Muisca asked for favours from their deities. Muisca scholar Pedro Simón wrote about
48-668: The tunjos of the Muisca. The Muisca, organised in their loose Muisca Confederation , exhibited one of the four advanced civilizations of the pre-Columbian Americas . While the Aztec , the Maya and the Inca were famous for their grand architecture with temples, pyramids and cities, the Muisca lived in simple wooden and reed bohíos . The main skill of the Muisca was their goldworking . The Muisca made pectoral pieces, nose rings ( narigueras ), earrings, plates, poporos and other figures from
60-643: The American Indian . Carmen de Carupa Carmen de Carupa is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Ubaté Province , part of the department of Cundinamarca . The municipality, located in the Ubaté-Chiquinquirá Valley on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense borders San Cayetano in the west, Tausa and Sutatausa in the south, Ubaté and Susa in the east and Simijaca and Buenavista and Coper ( Boyacá ) in
72-817: The case and analysis of the dendrites formed in the metal has shown that they have in fact been cast as one piece. Various tunjos have been analysed with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) giving the following results: Of the relatively few Muisca artefacts that can be found in museums outside of Colombia, the tunjos are most common. Tunjos are in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History , Art Institute of Chicago , Baltimore Museum of Art , British Museum , Brooklyn Museum , Cleveland Museum of Art , Dallas Museum of Art , Hunt Museum (listed as "possible Peruvian" [sic]), Metropolitan Museum of Art , Museum of Fine Arts, Houston , Princeton University Art Museum , Smithsonian National Museum of
84-591: The entrances of temples and shrines, which once filled were buried in secret places by the Muisca priests and as offer ritual figures in the sacred lakes and rivers of the Muisca. Tunjos have been uncovered in Lake Guatavita , Bosa River; the part of the Bogotá River west of the Bogotá neighbourhood Bosa , and in various other sacred sites of the Muisca. Tunjos have been found in caves too. In 2001,
96-479: The gold they traded with the surrounding indigenous groups , such as the Muzo , Panche , Guane , Pijao and others. One of the most common finds of these gold or tumbaga figures are the tunjos . Tunjos were small figures picturing people, the deities of the Muisca religion or animals. They were used for three purposes; as ornaments in the graves of the Muisca people, from various social classes, as decoration at
108-578: The namesake locality Tunjuelito and Ciudad Bolívar. The Tunjuelo River is highly contaminated. The Tunjuelo River valley hosts the type localities of various geologic formations of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. Three of the fifteen protected wetlands of Bogotá are located in the Tunjuelo River basin. Tunjo A tunjo (from Muysccubun : chunso ) is a small anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figure elaborated by
120-492: The north. The area around Carmen de Carupa was before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors inhabited by the Muisca . The cacique of Ubaté ruled over the territories of Carmen de Carupa. The western and northern neighbouring indigenous group of Carmen de Carupa was the Muzo . Modern Carmen de Carupa was founded on July 20, 1808 by José Joaquín Urdaneta and Doña Ventura. Main economical activity in Carmen de Carupa
132-690: The southern part of Bogotá . It flows through the southern part of the Colombian capital, south of the Fucha River , and has the largest drainage basin of the rivers of Bogotá. The river flows through the Usme Synclinal, where the type localities of various geological formations (among others the Marichuela Formation ) are situated. The Tunjuelo River forms the border between the localities Usme and Ciudad Bolivar and between
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#1732794470931144-403: The stone moulds and the tunjos remained. To create the 2D tunjos , they used a lost-wax casting process using beeswax to make the figure, put the wax tunjo in clay, that was heated to evaporate the wax and the gold or tumbaga was poured into the empty space left. The design of the majority of tunjos appears to have gold wire soldered or brazed onto their surface. This, however, is not
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