Sinu

The Zenú, a farming and goldworking people of the Sinú and San Jorge river valleys on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, held women as the symbol of fertility and wisdom. Clay figurines of women were set in graves to stand for conception and rebirth in the underworld, as a seed germinates and grows.

The dead were buried with music and dance in mounds crowned with a tree hung with golden bells, and with gold breastplates that stood for the pregnancy of women and the virility of men. Each valley was a province, and the three chiefs of Finzenú, Panzenú and Zenúfana shared complementary political, religious and economic duties.

Between 1510 and 1535 disease and war destroyed the chiefdoms. The Spanish looted the gold of the tombs.