Since Gustavo Petro became head of state last August, the presidential plane traveling around the world has also been used to repatriate Colombia’s archaeological heritage scattered abroad.
At least 560 pre-Columbian objects returned to the country during the intensive diplomatic trips in just over a year of the administration.
These 30 trips around the globe, criticized by the opposition as unnecessary and costly, allowed the return of pieces that were essentially in the hands of private collectors in the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, Germany or Mexico were part of a coordinated effort between the State Department and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH).
The government responded to the criticism by saying that the repatriation of archaeological heritage is part of a strategy of “efficient use of resources,” emphasizing the difference to the previous government, which had only repatriated 18 pieces in four years.
For Catalina Ceballos, director of cultural affairs at the State Department, it is a way to “talk about decolonization from a different perspective.”
Antique ceramics
The coordinator of the ICANH anthropology group, Juan Pablo Ospina, emphasizes that “the success” of the return of a large number of works of cultural heritage is the consequence of the “full availability” of the presidential aircraft in which the pieces are “packaged and properly protected” to the Travel”.
There are also returns at sea, such as 12 archaeological pieces recently found aboard the Colombian Navy’s three-masted training ship, the Gloria, on its way back from Costa Rica.
These refunds are primarily the result of many years of diplomatic work. Under the agreements, ICANH is responsible for recording, cataloging, transmission, receipt and, in some cases, preservation.
Most of Colombia’s archaeological treasures are ceramic pieces from different eras and cultures, the oldest being 6,000 to 7,000 years old and discovered in the Caribbean, explains Mr. Ospina. “This is very old evidence of the existence of ceramics.”
In other parts of Colombia, the use of pottery dates back to around 1,000 BC. BC, mainly in religious rituals and burial rites.
In contrast to Peru with the Incas or Mexico with the Aztecs, no great empires were formed in the area that is now Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and part of northern Ecuador, known in Latin American archeology as the “intermediate zone”.
There are no pyramids or gold or silver work here, with one exception: the Quimbayas Treasure, a gold collection of 122 pieces discovered at the end of the 19th century in a small village in the department of Quindio (West) and donated at the time to the Queen of Spain and today exhibited in the Museum of America in Madri