Copa aquillada zenú (2200 a 900 AP) by Cultura ZenúMuseo Arqueológico de los Pueblos Karib
Since 200 B.C., farmers, led by caciques and cacicas, began building a hydraulic system that for 1,300 years controlled annual floods in the area including the Momposina Depression, at the confluence of the Magdalena, Cauca and San Jorge rivers and the Sinú river valley.
After 1000 A.D., and until the Spanish conquest, the Zenús were concentrated in the high savannahs of the Sinú River while other groups occupied the banks of the Magdalena River (Malibúes).
Due to the flooding of the territory, the Zenús designed a complex hydraulic system built from a sophisticated network of drainage channels.
The hydraulic system gradually expanded, covering almost 500,000 hectares during the year 1000 A.D.
Cuenco Ceramico elipsoide (2200 a 900 AP) by Cultura ZenúMuseo Arqueológico de los Pueblos Karib
This allowed them to combine fishing and hunting with intensive agriculture.
Vasija Zenú con representación femenina (2200 a 900 AP) by Cultura ZenúMuseo Arqueológico de los Pueblos Karib
The caciques that ruled the Sinú, San Jorge and Bajo Cauca valleys controlled the hydraulic system, trade, and religion.
Vasija zoomorfa (2200 a 900 AP) by Cultura ZenúMuseo Arqueológico de los Pueblos Karib
Over the centuries, goldsmiths in the San Jorge river valley mass-produced thousands of filigree decoration and accessories for everyday use.
Ocarina con aplique zoomorfo (2200 a 900 AP) by Cultura ZenúMuseo Arqueológico de los Pueblos Karib
Birds, alligators, fish, deer or felines were represented with great realism in pendants and cane tops.
Máscara zenú (2200 a 900 AP) by Cultura ZenúMuseo Arqueológico de los Pueblos Karib
This society resisted the Spanish conquest and there are still Zenú indigenous people in the Colombian Caribbean.
Base cerámica (2200 a 900 AP) by Cultura ZenúMuseo Arqueológico de los Pueblos Karib
Their descendants still live in the Caribbean, and are well known for their complex plant fiber weaving.
Copa Cerámica (800 a 400 AP) by Cultura MalibuMuseo Arqueológico de los Pueblos Karib
There is currently a Zenú reservation in San Andrés de Sotavento (Córdoba).
