I am glad I am not an archaeologist. I do not get a kick out of old items or artifacts. I like the walk, while rather quickly looking at statues, graves, urns and whatnot, but I have probably lost the ability to become awed by the great achievements of our forefathers. I like the stories behind the physical appearance, but many a time - these stories remain untold.

I do not find it interesting looking at a statue that clearly looks like a midget, riding a rabbit while eating a plate of overcooked rice. I do not get impressed even thought it clearly looks like the work of a 5 year old handicapped girl with no sense of direction and occasional incidents of wetting her bed made of stone. The very same girl could have been the past times version of any contemporary child genius, but my mind is not tuned in on the frequency that find this slightly fascinating. After spending 5 days among ruins, graves, statues, urns, remains of village people from almost 1500 years ago I have to conclude my happiness of not having chosen a path of occupation, that would have led me to really old stuff.

For someone who are not really interested in this kind of sights, what is then the motivator? It is always the same answer, and that is: the stories and the details. I want to know why rather than seeing what the why resulted in. I get amazed by knowing how much hard work someone has put into carrying, cutting, shaping, moving, coloring or in any way transform any piece of prehistoric item. I get fascinated by the information about how many hours someone has put into a certain piece of work and I get awed when comparing this with what I know of the current world. In these times, we more or less let pass by, we rarely have the time or the reason for performing anything that might be remotely similar to an antique process. 2000 years ago, the people always seemed to have a reason for their work and they never did anything that would conflict with culture or religion. How come? Where they better people than us? Have we lost something more valuable than money on the forward path of evolution? Did our forefathers actually know how much interest their creations would attract when they constructed their pieces of art and means of communication? Did our forefathers really want to communicate with us with their achievements, trying to tell us stories or wisdom? Probably - these questions are very hard to answer, but that is also probably because I have no knowledge of the archaeological, historical or anthropological facts any respective scientist hold on our past. Reading will probably help, but as I already have stated - I do not find the time to read about it.

San Agustin is a relatively small town, it is the archaeological capitol of Colombia and is one of the most important archaeological sites in the whole of South America. Together with some other sites in its proximity a lot of interesting history can be told - if you have an interest for really, really old things. Tierradentro is another area with significant importance regarding culture, anthropology and history. These two sites combined gives the opportunity of breathtaking views for more than just the scientifically interested and that is exactly why they captured me to a certain extent.

Tierradentro is a large park with random spots of historical importance. It is mainly known for its very special tombs and the ritual attached to the tombs. There are mainly two types of tombs: tombs with room for one person or tombs with room for multiple persons. The common denominator is the shape and decoration. While the tombs always were between 1,5-7 meters underground they had more or minor amounts of decoration. Being the age they were, some graves have off course already seen their prime moment but other graves are amazingly well preserved. Paintings in the ceiling and on the walls, in red and black representing life and death, gives some sort of impression of the past times. All graves off course were hierarchically arranged and the most important person in a tribe, village or whatever the population were called, had the best tombs. Importance have been important throughout the history of time.

What is a tomb, though? Basically not more than a whole in the ground. Even a baby can make a whole in the ground. Maybe not as big or as structured like these kind of graves, but they can definitely create holes in the ground. What amazed me about these graves, was how it was build and where they placed them. The most impressive site I saw, was on a mountain ridge some 1,5 hour of steep and exhausting walk up a mountainside. Some 30 graves where placed like pearls on a string on a ridge, not more than 4-5 meters across, almost vertical drops on both sides and with a view in every heavenly direction. I can understand that the placement was important in relation to eternal peace, closeness to the Gods and the spiritual winds. Sitting up here, with the company of a very peculiar dog, I almost had a spiritual moment.

Even though I hardly can categorize myself as any kind of believer, I have captured something really strange on film. While my camera was on the tripod, I was snapping a few photos. One photo came out a bit different than the others, though. A small shadow on my right side could seem like a spirit of past times. I will never know, though. It never talked to me, never revealed or manifested itself before me. It could have been me, the dog and the spirit on the mountaintop. If you believe in that sort of thing, you might get goosebumps, but if not - it might just be dust on the lens.

To be continued …