Without genetic data from individuals who lived on the plateau between 6,000 and 2,000 years before present, researchers cannot know whether the transition was abrupt or gradual, or whether intermediate stages might show more complex patterns of mixing and replacement.

The Muisca: Continuity Through Cultural Change

The most famous culture of the Bogotá Altiplano is not the Preceramic hunter-gatherers of Checua, nor even the Herrera-period agriculturalists who replaced them.

It is the Muisca — the chiefdom society whose sophisticated political organization, elaborate religious practices, and spectacular goldwork made such an impression on the first European explorers that they became central to the legend of El Dorado.

The Muisca achieved their greatest cultural elaboration between roughly 600 and 1600 CE — approximately 1,400 to 400 years before present.